Sam Torrance made two things clear yesterday as he launched the race for places in his Ryder Cup team next year.

The first was that he wants everybody - players, spectators, caddies, media - to treat the Americans "as our opponents, not our enemies".

The second was that he will not be playing the same guessing game as Mark James did last year.

The 12-month marathon qualifying process, where every penny earned counts towards the points table, begins at the £923,000 Canon European Masters high up in the Swiss Alps at Crans-sur-Sierre today.

Torrance is playing and will be appearing on the table, but even if he qualifies for the side, the 47-year-old Scot will not be handing over the captaincy to somebody else and will not be a playing-captain either.

James refused to reveal his plans in the build-up to Boston and after finishing second in the Volvo PGA championship he went into the final qualifying event still with a chance of earning a spot. Only when he failed did he reveal that he would have played and would have nominated Ken Brown as his replacement.

"If I qualify I won't play - I'm captain," said Torrance.

It is with a sense of relief that Torrance approaches the start of the points race because it will give everybody something else to talk about.

Since being appointed at the end of last year, Torrance has had to focus on the fall-out from the controversial ending to last year's match, the row over the revelation in James's book that he binned a good luck letter from Nick Faldo and then his decision to make James one of his vice-captains with Ian Woosnam.

That created such a furore that James, one of Torrance's closest friends, eventually resigned.

Vice-captain himself under James at Brookline and highly critical of Tom Lehman after the American charge onto the 17th green at Brookline, Torrance knows that issue is not going to go away as The Belfry approaches.

"It's part of my remit to remind everyone how to behave, but I don't think we've had reason to worry about the support in the past.

"One thing we must remember is that the Americans are our opponents, not our enemies."

He has been in regular contact with opposite number Curtis Strange and added: "We both know it's time to get the game back to where it was.

"We have a responsibility to do that. Without going into details, he's going to be talking to a few people just as I am, just making sure that everything's cool, calm and collected."

Torrance expects there to be a surprise in the make-up of his team - because there is at least one virtually every time.

He has already said he would like Faldo to make the team - "I think he's an amazing golfer. He has an intimidating aura about him" - and today he added that he hopes to see James there too, even though he would be nearly 48.

"He is a very strong player. Cool, calm and collected - and that's the type of player you need."

Asked if James' presence might create an atmosphere like Boston (the book was called Into The Bearpit), Torrance responded: "He didn't cause the bearpit. He just wrote about it."

The headache which looms is the one regarding the schedules of several of his leading players.

Jesper Parnevik, Sergio Garcia, Paul Lawrie, Faldo and Jean Van de Velde all have US Tour cards this year and Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jose Maria Olazabal and Phil Price are poised to follow suit next season.

Despite that, Torrance says he is "comfortable" with the continuation of only two wild cards.

Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood, two of the players he can expect to rely on heavily, believe it is taking an unnecessary risk, however.

If Faldo and/or James do make it, they will have proved themselves remarkable players indeed. Without doubt, the European tour has more strength in depth than ever before.

"It's fantastic," he said. "And I'm pleased they have 10 (automatic) spots to go for because that's an extra one for them."