While pondering his options a week before announcing the European Ryder Cup team, skipper Mark James warned: "There comes a time when everyone has to move over - and it could happen this year." But nobody really expected all of the old guard to be ditched from the line-up for Brookline next month. Certainly not the survivors of the original, Fab Five.

Though the huge impact of Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle on the European Ryder Cup cause was alluded to in yesterday's IT, it merits closer inspection. Like the fact, for instance, that Langer holds the record of having played with no fewer than 12 different partners.

That is what Manuel Pinero, Faldo, Jose-Maria Canizares, Lyle, Ken Brown, Ronan Rafferty, James, Colin Montgomerie, Woosnam, Barry Lane, Per-Ulrik Johansson and David Gilford have in common. "It would have been special to have someone to play with regularly, just like Seve and Ollie," said Langer.

"But there has never been another player from Germany who would have been an obvious partner for me. Sandy Lyle could have been the one had he continued to make the team. We did very well at Muirfield Village (1987) where I produced some of the best golf I've ever played."

Then there was the extraordinary contribution of Ballesteros as the dominant half of the so-called Spanish Armada, with Jose-Maria Olazabal. They, too, hold a Ryder Cup record with 11 wins and two halves out of 15 foursomes and fourball matches together.

But it is often overlooked that Ballesteros also won foursomes matches with Antonio Garrido (1979), Paul Way (1983) and twice with Pinero (1985). And there were fourball successes with Way (1983) and Pinero (1985).

Meanwhile, Faldo holds the record for either team in having the most Ryder Cup points won, with 25 from a record 11 successive appearances. He also played a record 46 matches from which he has won a record 23. Yet former skipper Bernard Gallacher claimed that James was quite correct to omit him from the current side.

"If Nick is not playing well, he makes no contribution to the team," said Gallacher. "That's what happened at Kiawah Island in 1991 when he was so concerned about his own game that he didn't even speak to David Gilford, after I had paired them in the foursomes on the second morning."

In the current issue of the US magazine, Golf Digest, Woosnam tells a delightful story of his Ryder Cup debut at Palm Beach Gardens in 1983, when the Americans won narrowly in what was to become a turning point in European fortunes. "I was so nervous that I was actually shaking on the first tee in my first fourball match with Sam Torrance," recalled the Welshman.

Woosnam went on: "Sam whispered to me `don't worry, I'll look after you. It'll be all right.' With that, he shanks his tee shot out of bounds right. Then he goes and knocks it out of bounds again on the next. Then he hits it in the water. I don't even see him for the first three holes. But he had seven birdies after that and we succeeded in halving with Ben Crenshaw and Calvin Peete."

Despite appearing in eight Ryder Cup teams, Woosnam has the unwanted distinction of never having won a singles match, though he had memorable halves with Fred Couples in 1993 and 1995. But he contributed in other ways. For instance, he and Faldo formed an unbeatable partnership at Muirfield Village in 1987 where their three and a half points out of four, culminated in a 5 and 4 thrashing of Curtis Strange and Tom Kite in the top fourballs of the Saturday afternoon.

Of the five, Lyle remains something of an enigmatic figure. Yet he made a worthy contribution from 1979 to 1987, with seven wins and two halves from 18 matches. And his only singles win was a memorable effort, coming at number five in the order in 1985 when he beat Peter Jacobsen by 3 and 2.

"Playing with Langer was special in 1987 - that was the best Ryder Cup for me," he recalled. "We played so well against Lanny Wadkins and Larry Nelson. That was very sweet. Lanny still talks to me about it. I felt comfortable with Bernhard whose determination not to give up, always made me try harder."

He added: "They're great memories, but I don't dwell on not having played since. I wasn't up to it in 1989 and you can't be selfish in a team event. My decision was the best for me and the team." Taking them as a group, the five contributed 92.5 points out of a combined 170 matches. Which works out at an overall success rate of 54 per cent - quite remarkable at this level of competition. They will be missed. But given that the oldest of them, Ballesteros, is still only 42, who is to say that one or more of them won't be back to thrill us at some time in the future. And wouldn't it be particularly interesting to have one of the Fab Five, competitive once more, when the Ryder Cup comes to The K Club in 2005?

Christy O'Connor Jnr has strengthened his chance a top-31 end-of-season placing in the US Seniors' money list. After the BankBoston Classic last weekend, O'Connor has earned $559,957 from nine tournaments in the US this year, quite apart from a victory last month in the British Senior Open at Royal Portrush.

The top-10 are (US unless stated): Bruce Fleisher $1,718,160; 2 Hale Irwin $1,672,855; 3 Allen Doyle $1,342,309; 4 Larry Nelson $1,132,908; 5 Dana Quigley $978,444; 6 Vicente Fernandez (Arg) $902,931; 7 John Jacobs $886,541; 8 Jose-Maria Canizares (Spa) $845,680; 9 Graham Marsh (Aus) $845,680; 10 Dave Eichelberger $818,618. Other placing: 17 Christy O'Connor Jnr $559,436.