European Masters: With Vijay Singh hurting himself playing table tennis and Ernie Els still recovering from a sailing injury in July, Ian Woosnam must be tempted to wrap Europe's star performers in cotton wool over these next 12 months.
The race for places in Woosnam's team for the K Club in Co Kildare in September of next year starts tomorrow in the Omega European Masters high up in the Swiss Alps at Crans-sur-Sierre.
Only four of last year's heroes - Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey and Miguel Angel Jimenez - are involved in the opening skirmishes.
And that highlights the biggest problem facing Woosnam in the countdown to the first-ever match in Ireland.
Although a record 13 Europeans are currently in the world's top 50, most of them - including Donald and Garcia - spend a large part of the season in America. Others, like Justin Rose, Greg Owen, Fredrik Jacobson and Alex Cejka have resigned their European tour membership and will not be collecting qualifying points for the rest of this season.
George O'Grady, the tour's executive director, today stated that possible changes to the qualifying system - five off the world rankings and five off the Order of Merit, plus two wild cards - are to be discussed next week.
But they will relate to the 2008 match in Louisville, not next year's clash.
The current system, of course, led to a team which won by a record number of points last time and Woosnam said: "It has worked so far, but maybe in the future it might have to change."
Capped eight times himself, the 47-year-old Welshman will ask to be paired with some of the cup contenders as the race enters the final stretch.
Woosnam said: "If they can't play under that pressure then they can't play under Ryder Cup pressure. "I think it's a captain's job to get to know his guys more - and one of our strengths is that we play like a family. That's one-up for us before we start really."
Donald is this week's defending champion and, either through superstition or merely friendliness, he is keeping to last year's arrangement of staying with cup partner Garcia in the house the Spaniard owns.
"Certainly it worked for me last year - hopefully it does again," said Donald, who beat Jimenez by five shots with Garcia one stroke further back in joint third.
The 27-year-old English star was on a high in every sense at the time. Seven days earlier Bernhard Langer had handed him a wild card for the match in Detroit.
Donald has not won since then, but has risen to 14th in the world thanks largely to a runners-up finish in the Players Championship and third place on his Masters debut.
Having missed a great chance to taste success again in Munich last week he added: "My goal is to win.
"The Ryder Cup is slightly in the back of your mind and will become more prominent as the year progresses, but it can't do any harm to accumulate some world ranking points and prize money early. Obviously, I'd like to qualify by rights from my own efforts rather than rely on a wild card."
Especially as competition for them could well be fierce.
One European playing this week with no Ryder Cup thoughts on his mind - yet - is Italian Edoardo Molinari.
Older brother of tour member Francesco, the 24-year-old is basking in the glory of winning the American amateur championship last weekend.
The last player from Europe to do that was Harold Hilton 94 years ago.
Molinari had planned to go to the tour school this November, but now will stay amateur to compete in the Masters, US Open and Open next season.
There will be a strong Irish presence in Switzerland including Peter Lawrie, Gary Murphy, Stephen Browne and Philip Walton. And the South African-based Shaun Stapleton, who represents Ireland and plays mainly on the Sunshine Tour, is playing on a sponsor's invite.
