Leading European players are expressing growing concern over the system of Ryder Cup selection. If anything, the smoothness of the American process, as evidenced at Atlanta last weekend, has had the effect of heightening European deficiencies.

"It's pretty good when we have to use a wild card to pick the number seven player in the world," Nick Faldo commented ironically about the situation regarding Sergio Garcia, an absentee from the Firestone field this week.

And there has been an angry response from Jose-Maria Olazabal, who would appear to have little chance of making the team for a first time since 1995, when he asked not to be considered because of illness. "As players, we're way down on the bottom; nobody listens to us," said the Spaniard. "We said a long time ago that the system is wrong, but nobody listens."

Lee Westwood, a member of next month's European side, concurs. "I thought they were deciding a few years ago to do it off the world rankings, but for some reason they chose to stick with the Order of Merit," he said. "When you have more and more players competing in the US, our present system just doesn't seem to work."

Paul McGinley joined the controversy, though he is unclear as to a workable solution. "The top 12 in the world rankings would produce our strongest team but I can understand that the European Tour have to protect their interests. You can't have six automatic selections and six picks."

In that context, Ken Schofield, the tour's executive director, believed he had an ideal compromise four years ago, in the wake of the victory at Valderrama. In a letter to the Ryder Cup committee, his own tour board and the tour's tournament committee on November 11th 1997, Schofield outlined a new selection process.

It would involve picking five players from the world rankings, five from the Order of Merit and two wild-cards. He wrote: "The future of the men's professional tournament game will continue to become more international with the setting up of the Federation Tours." But his proposal was turned down by the 15-member tournament committee, comprised largely of current, tour players.

It seemed a reasonable compromise, given McGinley's point that the interest of rookies such as Ian Poulter have to be protected. As the Dubliner put it: "To get from zero into the top 50 in the world rankings during a two-year period is a bit of a tall order. I know Tiger did it and so did Sergio, but you've got to achieve a workable balance."

In the meantime, the qualification for the NEC Invitations continues to be something of a mess. When it was limited last year to the top 12 Europeans on the Order of Merit, Garcia and Jesper Parnevik didn't get in. Now that the qualification applies to the top 12 in the European Ryder Cup table, Garcia and Parnevik are also absentees. The system is changing again for next year's event at Sahalee, where qualification will be based on the top 50 of the world rankings. The controversy rages - and with good reason.