Perry in position for major role

For the Europeans, the race for Ryder Cup points still has a small, but highly lucrative stretch to run; for the Americans it's nearly over. When the final putt is rolled into the cup in this week's USPGA championship at the Atlantic Country Club, all the shaping and posturing will be complete and US captain Curtis Strange will know his 10 automatic selections.

All that will be left is for Strange to name his two captain's picks, a chore he will undertake next Monday morning, when the dust has settled on the season's last major where Tiger Woods will be seeking to claim his third successive USPGA title.

Just like in Europe, however, that quest for playing tickets to the Belfry next month is going to the wire. Jim Furyk's tied-second place finish in the Buick Open lifted him from 11th to eighth in the US table, while Chris DiMarco, who finished alongside him, jumped from 16th to 11th place, just 10 points behind Tom Lehman, who missed the cut in Michigan.

While Europe's captain Sam Torrance has endured some anxious moments watching the formation of the automatic places, Strange has also experienced some tribulations. Unlike Europe where money won is translated into points, the American system only rewards players who manage top-10 finishes in the designated tournaments.

And, of the players currently in the US team, Mark Calcavecchia and Hal Sutton have not earned any points since last April, while Lehman has to go back to the St Jude Classic in June for his last haul. And Joe Durant, who slipped out of the automatic places only after missing the cut in last weekend's tournament, is another who hasn't won any points since April. All of which points to serious losses of form for a number of players.

One player who didn't have the Ryder Cup on his mind, however, was Kenny Perry, who ended a six-year drought - dating back to the 1995 Bob Hope Classic - by claiming the Buick Open title, where Padraig Harrington finished in tied-seventh. The Dubliner, who had used the Buick as a warm-up tournament for what will be his third USPGA appearance, collected a cheque for $107,725 and also moved up to a career-high 13th place in the world rankings.

"I didn't even look at the Ryder Cup, I am so far behind," explained Perry.

Perry may have suffered a barren spell since that last tournament win in 1995, but he heads to Atlanta as one of the game's form players: he had finished among the top 11 in four of his last seven tournaments, and his winning 25-under-par total in Grand Blanc - where he became the first player on the US Tour this year to shoot 29 for nine holes twice in the same tournament, which he did on Friday and Saturday - was just one stroke away from the tournament record.

While Harrington - who had a string of three successive bogeys on the front nine, along with six birdies in a closing round 69 - used the tournament as an acclimatising warm-up for the PGA, so too was Phil Mickelson satisfied with his tune-up. "I'm right where I want to be going into the PGA. I'm striking the ball well and I'm putting well," said Mickelson.

Harrington, too, travelled down to Atlanta believing that the Buick - where he played on a sponsor's invite - had provided a confidence-building few days heading into the PGA where he will play alongside Mike Weir and John Huston for the opening two rounds.

Paul McGinley, whose win in the Wales Open has virtually secured his Ryder Cup place (particularly as he is now guaranteed to play in next week's WGC-NEC in Akron when there is a limited field, no cut and a minimum $25,000 prize money) tees-off in the first group with Stephen Keppler and Jonathan Kaye, while Darren Clarke is another early starter on Thursday, playing alongside Michael Campbell and Scott Verplank.