When those mandarins at the PGA European Tour, the administrators and the players, changed the criteria for qualification for the Ryder Cup to bring in a structure weighed towards world points, it had more to do with making life easier for the likes of Sergio Garcia. In truth, Daniel Chopra would have been one of those players furthest from their minds.
Yet, after his play-off win in the season-opening Mercedes Championship on the US Tour, Chopra, a 34-year-old Swede of Indian extraction who has a personal obsession with Star Trek, has, whether the captain likes it or not, already forced his way into Nick Faldo's consideration for Europe's Ryder Cup defence at Valhalla in Kentucky next September.
In defeating Steve Stricker at the fourth hole of sudden-death to win in Hawaii on Sunday, Chopra has moved to second place behind Justin Rose in the world points qualifying from which the first five players on Europe's team will come. And the win, his second on the US Tour having finished last season strongly with a maiden victory in the Ginn Sur Mer Classic in October (the penultimate event on the tour which earned him a ticket to Kapalua) has moved Chopra to a career-high 61 in the latest official world rankings.
With his win in Hawaii, Chopra has also secured a debut visit to the US Masters at Augusta National in April and his upward movement in the world rankings should also see him make the field for the Accenture World Matchplay in Tucson next month, which also counts towards the number of tournaments he needs to play on the European Tour to fulfil his tour membership.
Back in 2006, Chopra looked like making a late, late charge for a place on the European team for The K Club when he finished second in the Western Open, only for it to be discovered he had allowed his membership of the European Tour to lapse. He has learned a lesson, and he has already played two counting events (in New Zealand and Australia) this season which count towards him fulfilling his obligations for the year.
So, Mr Faldo - who was in Hawaii in his role as a television commentator - will no doubt sit up and take more note of a player who has found the richest vein of a career that once had him mainly playing, with only limited success, on the European Challenge Tour.
Who is Chopra? Chopra was born in Sweden but moved to India, where he lived with his paternal grandparents, when he was seven.
"I loved it over there," he said. "The only real differences for me in my mind were they didn't have all my favourite sweets or my favourite drinks, but other than that I thought it was really great.
"I'm very proud to be half and half. People say, do you feel more Swedish or Indian? I see myself as Swedish when I'm in Sweden and Indian when I'm in India. The fact that I grew up in India . . . my thinking might be a little bit more Indian, but . . . I think the physical side of me might be a little more Swedish. (So) I feel right down the middle."
Chopra is a player who made no fewer than seven visits to the European Tour school (only two of them successful with his best season being his maiden one in 1996 when he finished 36th on the Order of Merit) but who found a new breath of life when he won a tour card on the PGA Tour in 2004. He has earned over $6 million in prize money since claiming tour status in the States, although he has moved to a new level in recent months with two wins there in his last three tournaments.
While Chopra has put himself into early contention for a Ryder Cup berth, Darren Clarke will seek to continue his decent pre-Christmas form in the South African Open (when he finished fourth) with a return to South Africa for this week's Joburg Open at Kensington Golf Club. He is one of five Irish players in the field, alongside Michael Hoey, Colm Moriarty, Stephen Browne and Gareth Maybin.
MERCEDES BENZ CHAMPIONSHIP (at Kapalua, Hawaii - par 73)- Leading final scores: 274 - Daniel Chopra (Swe) 69 72 67 66, Steve Stricker (US) 73 69 68 64 (Chopra won play-off at the fourth extra hole); 275 - Stephen Ames (Can) 72 67 70 66; 276 - Mike Weir (Can) 71 67 68 70; 278 - Hunter Mahan (US) 73 72 69 64, Jim Furyk (US) 74 70 66 68, Nick Watney (US) 68 72 67 71; 279 - Charles Howell III (US) 74 70 68 67, Justin Leonard (US) 73 68 69 69; 280 - Mark Calcavecchia (US) 75 66 71 68, Brandt Snedeker (US) 71 69 70 70; 281 - Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 70 71 73 67 Chad Campbell (US) 75 68 68 70, Vijay Singh (Fiji) 74 70 67 70; 282 - Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 71 70 71, Jonathan Byrd (US) 70 69 69 74.
