Colin Byrne's Caddie's Role: The primary reason the captain of the European Ryder Cup team, Bernhard Langer, gave for justifying his two wild-card picks was that Colin Montgomerie's and Luke Donald's game will suit the course in Detroit, Oakland Hills Country Club.

The course was the host to the US Open that Steve Jones won in 1996. It is a good, tough course which no doubt will be set up to accommodate the bland nature of modern golf; thick uniform rough and narrow fairways.

Langer must assume his two selected players will be able to find the carefully-mown grass on most holes. It is naturally a valid consideration, accuracy is always a valuable asset.

The captain developed his reasoning behind Monty and Donald's inclusion. Donald has a pedigree in matchplay that obviously impressed Langer. He has a very good Walker Cup record which the German mentioned at Sunday's press conference.

Monty, he felt, was coming out the other side of a very tough private situation. He gathered he is moving on from a marriage break-up that was visibly affecting his game. Of course his experience will be invaluable on the European side. What he did not mention about the elder statesman Montgomerie is that he will be a great spirit to have around the locker-room.

As unsociable as he may appear on the course, as he is when things are not going his way, he is generally affable and enjoys plenty of banter off course. His warm-up sessions on the range before most rounds include more idle chit-chat than hitting. Knowing him from the European locker-room as I do, Monty is more likely to engage in a discussion about any general topic than he is to discuss golf. For whatever perceived reason Langer feels the team would not be complete without him.

We (my boss, Retief Goosen) were paired with Monty in the final round of the BMW event. He is still a good player, but he is by no means the player who won countless events and seven European Order of Merits. He is, however, as hungry as he was 10 years ago.

This is what left me a little suspicious last Sunday. As ever the world is a wonderful place in golf land when the putts are going in. When Monty missed a few shorter ones in the closing holes there was not the same reaction I would have expected from a champion who was fighting for a status in a game he has dominated in Europe for almost a decade.

With his unbeaten record in six Ryder Cup singles, though, it would be hard to deny such a proven performer a chance to do it all again next month.

Sam Torrance gave a rather curt Ryder Cup press conference two years ago.

Bernhard has a more deliberate style about him. He was well into the conference last Sunday before he disclosed his picks.

Langer is traditionally a man of few words so when he does talk you tend to listen. He approached the subject of team selection in a light-hearted side, saying he was going to phone Hal Sutton to see who he would suggest he picks, and he carried the joke through by cracking a broad smile and at no time ever looked uncomfortable.

The problem for Langer was he had a particularly difficult decision to make compared to previous years when there were not so many deserving candidates vying for their place on the team. So Langer specifically mentioned Joakim Haeggman, Alex Cejka and Freddie Jacobson, players who were contenders for either outright top 10 places or picks right until the last putt dropped.

Seemingly there have never been so many possible qualifiers still in contention till late on the Sunday of the team announcement. Paul McGinley's determination to earn his place on the team will be a great asset to bring to Detroit.

The player who has been omitted from the team who could feel aggrieved is Jacobson. He has finished sixth on both the world qualifying and European Order of Merit qualifying system. Golf at this level is about subtle margins and Jacobson is more aware of them than ever today as he takes a break from golf for a couple of weeks back in his native Sweden.

McGinley summed him up quite accurately: "'Freddie is a real tough competitor. He's a scrapper, and they are the guys that are always tough to fight against."

For this reason, and this alone, I feel he will be missed by the Europeans in America. Jacobson is a little wild off the tee, but what he lacks in accuracy off the tee he makes up for with a dead aim on the putting green. If you play him in matchplay no matter how your four-round reputation is, the chances are he will hole more long putts against you than you would expect to hole in a normal event.

Jacobson is a stoic, noble and affable Swede. He sat at the outdoor bar overlooking the putting green in Munich on Sunday after he learnt of his omission from the Ryder Cup team with one of the Swedish PGA coaches. He was drinking a beer and looking, naturally, dejected. When I offered him my condolences he cracked a genuine smile which indicated that if ever there was someone equipped to deal with this setback then I was looking at him.

The talk will continue about the merits of the team and the captain's picks until the Ryder Cup is over.

The biggest regret is Langer didn't surprise everyone in the press tent last Sunday and announce himself as one of the two choices. I have found no player yet whose eyes light up at the prospect of facing the relentless German in a matchplay situation.

Despite the fact he will be a calculating and decisive leader, his most valuable position would have been as the dogged competitor he is.