Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam today revealed he had already earmarked one of his wild cards and hopes that Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, currently in line to qualify automatically, will not be among the hopefuls when it comes to selecting his other choice.
Harrington and McGinley are currently on course to play in Co Kildare but both are vulnerable to being overtaken in ninth and 10th place respectively.
Just four weeks and five tournaments remain before the European team is finalised, although the Russian Open takes place at the same time as the USPGA championship and is unlikely to have any effect on qualifying.
"You would want to have Irish people in the team and if those two players dropped out of the team and were next on the list, you would seriously be looking at them for picks," said Woosnam. "Anything can change but hopefully neither of them will drop out.
"I've spoken to Paul McGinley, he's on about 1.4million points at the moment and he'll have to get up to 1.6million or so to ensure he's safe. The only way to do that is play good golf."
Woosnam does not expect Darren Clarke to play in September as he indicated after the British Open he would take a complete break from golf due to his wife's ongoing battle with cancer.
"I will speak to Darren but I think he pretty much said at the Open what he was doing. If his situation is the same then obviously he is not going to play."
The American team is finalised after next week's USPGA championship at Medinah, and currently features four rookies - Vaughn Taylor, JJ Henry, Zach Johnson and Brett Wetterich - in the automatic qualifying positions.
"That could be an advantage, they might have a different outlook because sometimes it can get a little stale," added Woosnam, who will name his two wild cards after the BMW International in Munich on September 3rd.
"With new blood in the team they might have something to prove. The only thing for us, as their captain Tom Lehman has said, is that these guys are great players but all their experience has been in America.
"They haven't had the experience of playing around the world and we all know what the K Club could be like, it could be cold and lashing down with rain. Sometimes that is why you can rely on players who have played around the world and played in such conditions."
As for the course itself, the 48-year-old Welshman added: "The fairways are going to be fairly narrow but I am not going to have this long grass around the greens; if you miss the greens it will run off to play some chip and runs.
"I'll set it up very much like Sam (Torrance) had the course at The Belfry which seemed to suit us."
