91Èȱ¬

For the money then the glory - the tale of two weeks in professional golf.

earned him more than £7m. If the American was to repeat his feat of two years ago and close out victory for his country in this week's Ryder Cup, it would be a much bigger deal.

There were a few sore heads among American golf fans come the climax of the FedEx Cup play-off series in Atlanta - and they had nothing to do with excessive consumption of alcohol to celebrate Furyk's lucrative triumph.

Instead, it was the headache that accompanies excessive use of the brain in trying to keep up with the higher mathematics required to work out who was winning in the .

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Fabio Capello may favour waiting until the last minute before telling his who is playing, but that's not a tactic will be following with Europe's golfers at the

In fact, Monty is taking the diametrically opposite view. The skipper has also said he will field all 12 of his side on the opening day of the Celtic Manor clash.

It is an extraordinarily bold and early move that highlights his impatience for the match to begin. "I can't wait now that the team has been selected," he told 91Èȱ¬ Sport nine days ahead of the 1 October starting date.

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Paul Casey's served to highlight that Europe will be going into next month's Ryder Cup without their strongest team.

Indeed, it was already abundantly clear that the current system for selecting the continent's team did not produce the best possible line-up when the likes of Casey and Justin Rose were .

This was an issue when captain Colin Montgomerie was deciding which three players should accompany the leading four qualifiers from the world points list and the five highest earners on the European Tour money list to make up the dozen .

With hindsight it clearly made sense to flip the order of the selection criteria. But only if the be all and end all is victory by putting together a side that consists of the 12 best European golfers.

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was a bit like deciding whether to pay into a voluntary pension scheme. He wasn't compelled to do it, but he felt he should, even though there was no guarantee of the dividend meeting expectations.

There are no guarantees when it comes to the world's top golfer these days and, in truth, there have never been any when it has come to the Ryder Cup. In five appearances for his country against Europe,

In his absence, through injury two years ago, the United States were a rejuvenated force under the leadership of , who was able to fashion a keener team spirit without Woods in the team room.

So there's plenty to point to the US being better off when he doesn't play in a Ryder Cup. Yet Pavin's selection - which was far from unexpected - might just pay off, especially in a side that looks to have an

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