GOLF / INTERNATIONAL OPEN: If the assortment of healed body parts - John Daly's wrist, Nick Faldo's arm, Padraig Harrington's ankle and Darren Clarke's knee - beg comparison with those miracle cures paraded by members of an ageing tour party returning home from a trip to Lourdes, or Knock for that matter, perhaps it has much to do with the fact that few courses are as capable in discovering the true nature of a player's well-being as The Belfry, where the B&H International Open gets under way today.

Although it is over four months away, the spectre of the Ryder Cup - when miracles of a different type may be required - not only looms over the tournament but in fact adds spice to it. Ten members of the European Ryder Cup team are competing - only Sergio Garcia and Jesper Parnevik are absent - and team captain Sam Torrance has used the past couple of days as a sort of bonding exercise among his men. "It's good to get a bit of team spirit going," he remarked.

Indeed, it is further evidence of the changing times, and the way that captains must prepare for the showpiece of professional team golf, that Torrance is considering enlisting the help of England soccer manager Sven Goran Eriksson or Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson - or both - to give "a pep talk" on one of the nights leading up to the Ryder Cup.

"It all depends on how he (Eriksson) does in the World Cup," quipped Colin Montgomerie when informed of his captain's plans, while Harrington - who works with the noted American sports psychologist Bob Rotella - claimed he would be genuinely interested in such a proposal.

"After all," said Harrington, "he is a Swede showing the English how to play football and it would be a genuine European input, but I'd really also like to hear what someone like him would have to say to us."

Torrance, though, is seriously considering making the request. "Someone like Alex would be fantastic, but someone like Sven Goran Eriksson is managing an international team and doesn't, like Alex, work with the same players every week. That's more similar to something like the Ryder Cup," insisted Torrance.

In terms of who will play with who come September, it was quite revealing that Harrington and Paul McGinley - just as they were in the Seve Trophy - were paired together on Tuesday in a fourball betterball match (their private match with Montgomerie and Thomas Bjorn finished on the 15th, with the Irish duo ahead) and Torrance yesterday remarked: "Harrington and McGinley are fabulous together. It looks as if their selection is cast in stone but, if one gets tired, then I can definitely use the other somewhere else."

Such an observation from Torrance is indicative of how much both players have grown in stature in the past couple of years.

The Ryder Cup, though, is very much down the road and the players' thoughts this week are on the International Open, the first European Tour event of the season to be played in Britain, which kick-starts a lucrative spell on the circuit.

There are seven Irish players in the field. The three Irish Ryder Cup players - Harrington, McGinley and Clarke - are joined by Michael Hoey, last year's British Amateur champion, who turned professional after the US Masters and who is playing here on a sponsor's invitation, Eamonn Darcy, Des Smyth and Ronan Rafferty.

Like Harrington, Clarke was forced to miss the Irish PGA because of injury. However, his knee problem - "I had some inflammation in my knee ligaments but I am fit again and feeling pretty good," he remarked - has cleared up.

"I'm hitting the ball nicely. The only problem I'm having is with my putting, which is caused by coming off fast bent grass greens onto poa annua," said Clarke.

"I really should play well here but, for whatever reason, it has never happened for me. But I don't think the course owes me something. You just take it one tournament at a time," insisted Clarke.

Someone else taking it one tournament at a time is John Daly, who has been placed on medication to thin his blood after suffering what he called "a mini-stroke" at home last weekend. However, it didn't stop him making the trip and the chance to play a course in a tournament situation as distinct from a Ryder Cup situation.

Indeed, one of Daly's ambitions is to one day play in the Ryder Cup. "Oh, it would be great, wonderful. I don't think I'd ever get picked, I would have to play my way onto the team.

"I have got two records going: the only guy that's won a major who is American that has never played on it . . . and the only guy who's won two majors and never played on it. I've got a bit of history," said Daly, who has taken up his European Tour card. The field has been further strengthened by the presence of Jose Maria Olazabal, who continues to play as if he should be the playing inspiration of the European team come September rather than a mere spectator, US Open champion Retief Goosen and Justin Rose, fresh from his win in Japan last weekend.