GOLF RYDER CUP CAPTAIN'S PICKS:In recent times, the weight of a captain's pick has acted as a spur rather than a hindrance, reports Philip Reid

THERE IS no rocket science to picking a wild card as many of Europe’s captains have discovered since Des Smyth and Peter Oosterhuis were the first to be handed such an honour back in 1979 at a time when the Ryder Cup renaissance really got under way. Since then, it has been a hit-and-miss affair: some players deliver the goods, on occasions quite spectacularly; and some bring their armoury to the battle only to fire blanks.

In truth, down through the years, there have been more misses than hits. And, yet, in more recent times, there has been indisputable evidence that the weight of a captain’s pick actually acts as a spur rather than a hindrance. The most dramatic vindication of a captain’s wild card pick came at The K Club in 2006 where Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke made Ian Woosnam look like a genius: Westwood was unbeaten in five matches, winning three and halving two, while Clarke won all three of his matches.

Ironically, the original selection of Clarke and Westwood had not gone down entirely well, especially with Thomas Bjorn. The Dane – ranked 35th in the world at the time to Westwood’s 47th – had left Golfclub Munchen Nord-Eichenried in a courtesy car at the conclusion of the qualifying in the BMW International with no word one way or another from Woosnam on whether he would be a captain’s pick, and only learnt his fate after switching on the TV in his hotel room to watch the Welshman’s press conference.

Bjorn, who’d narrowly missed out on automatic qualifying, was devastated to be passed over and vented his anger at Woosnam.

“With all due respect to Lee, he has not been playing well, he hasn’t won this year and he hasn’t been at the top of his game,” Bjorn remarked, going on, “this will be the first time I don’t even watch the Ryder Cup on television.

“I desperately want the 12 players to be a success, but I want them to do it in spite of the captain. There are a lot of people feeling uneasy about the Woosie captaincy.”

That outburst would lead to a fine for Bjorn from the PGA European Tour, and he was also forced to issue an apology to Woosnam.

Yet, the real answer was provided in the match, where Westwood was an on-course leader and, as Clarke later described it, a “crutch” for the Ulsterman given he was playing only six weeks after the death of his wife, Heather, following a four-year battle with breast cancer.

In his book, Heroes All, Clarke would later outline why he decided to accept Woosnam’s offer of a captain’s pick:

“It was not an easy decision, but no matter how many times I debated it in my mind, I always came to the same ending – Heather would want me to. I decided to make myself available, but only after I convinced myself that I would be of benefit to the team.

“If I was going to play, then I was going to have to contribute, because the Ryder Cup is no place for passengers. Can I win matches? Can I get through the week? Can I cope with the spotlight, emotion and pressure? It was only when I could answer ‘yes’ to all those questions that I made it known that I was up for the Cup.”

In fact, Woosnam had made the wild card offer to Clarke on the Thursday of the BMW – four days before he announced his two picks – and, while Bjorn later relented on his outburst, the real justification of selecting Clarke and Westwood ahead of him was really only borne out by the respective performances of the two.

It arguably constituted the most inspired wild card picks of any captaincy.

Ironically, the failure of Nick Faldo to opt for Clarke at Valhalla in 2008 provoked its fair amount of controversy – although, again, Ian Poulter, who was preferred on that occasion, justified his selection with a performance that saw the Englishman win four of his five matches for an 80 per cent success rate, the best of any European.

Unfortunately, that selection was one of the few bright spots in Faldo’s captaincy as Europe relinquished the trophy in suffering a first defeat since 1999.

Controversy over a captain’s pick is not a recent phenomenon. Indeed, back in 1979, and again in 1981, captain John Jacobs opted to select Peter Oosterhuis, who was not a member of the European Tour: in the first instance, it worked reasonably well, with the Englishman delivering two points from a possible four, but it backfired mightily in 1981 when he lost all three of his matches.

The consequence was that there were no wild cards for the 1983 match, although captains from 1985 to 1993 inclusive were subsequently allowed three selections, before it was reduced to two from 1995 to 2008 and then increased to three for this year’s match.

There have been occasions, too, where Irish players were controversially overlooked in their claims for a wild card, most obviously in 1985 when Christy O’Connor Jnr finished 11th on the European Tour money list which also acted as the qualifying table. He was 10th in the Ryder Cup points list because Australian Graham Marsh wasn’t eligible to play.

But O’Connor was overlooked by Tony Jacklin, who opted instead to select Jose Rivero (14th on the money list), Ken Brown (16th) and Nick Faldo (37th).

On another occasion, in 1991, Eamonn Darcy finished a mere £58 short of an automatic place on the team – but was left at home as Bernard Gallacher chose Jose Maria Olazabal, Faldo and Mark James. Of the trio, only Olazabal justified Gallacher’s faith: the Spaniard won three-and-a-half points out of five, but Faldo and James only managed one point apiece from a possible four.

However, since 2004, the trend – from a European perspective – with regards to the performances of those picked has been more hit than miss: in 2004, Colin Montgomerie had a 75 per cent success rate, while Luke Donald’s was 62.5 per cent; in 2006, Clarke’s was 100 per cent and Westwood’s 80 per cent; while in 2008, Poulter’s was 80 per cent and Casey’s 66 per cent.

Time will tell if Monty has got it right. But recent history seems to suggest that getting a wild card inspires a player rather than weighs him down. It seems a captain’s gut instinct is often the right one.