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One of the truisms of sport is that while form is temporary, class is permanent. Double Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal rode a roller-coaster of form as a golfer but his class never diminished as a career-threatening illness took its toll.
That is why the Spaniard will make a formidable captain for Europe’s defence of the Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club in a fortnight.
Yet even Olazabal will concede that form is a handy club to have in the bag. And form suggests Europe will enjoy a crucial advantage over the United States when the three-day tournament begins near Chicago on September 28.
Starting with the US PGA Championship last month, four members of Olazabal’s 12-man team have won six titles between them. The only American winner in those five weeks? Nick Watney, and he will be at home watching the Ryder Cup on television. Keegan Bradley did have a win, but that was more than five weeks ago.
For Europe, world No1 Rory McIlroy followed up his sensational triumph in the PGA with successive victories in the Deutsche Bank Championship and, last Sunday, the BMW Championship in the United States. Also on Sunday, Peter Hanson holed a 35ft eagle putt at the last to win the KLM Open in Holland, where Cup team-mates Nicolas Colsaerts came eighth and Martin Kaymer 21st.
Before the weekend, rejuvenated former Open champion Paul Lawrie had already secured his place in Olazabal’s side with victory in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and Ryder Cup fanatic Sergio Garcia guaranteed his sixth cap by taking the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina.
Added encouragement for Olazabal is that Lee Westwood is showing signs of recovery from a troubled summer in which the former world No1 was a lowly 45th in the Open and missed the cut altogether at the US PGA.
Westwood, always a formidable Ryder Cup player, came in fifth and second in two of his last three tournaments, leading Hanson to say: “I’ve been watching the golf from the States in the evenings and Lee is playing well and Rory has been playing fantastic. Sergio winning has also been good for the team. Jose Maria congratulated me on Sunday and said how nice it was to see me win and also to have Nicolas and Martin playing well, too. So it feels like the team are playing well and everyone is trying to peak for the Ryder Cup.”
Colsaerts and Kaymer, along with team-mate Francesco Molinari, will continue their build-up at the BMW Italian Open, starting in Turin tomorrow. McIlroy has a week off before seeking to confirm his dominance in the United States by lifting the FedExCup and a season-ending bonus worth $10million (£6.25m) at East Lake in Atlanta.
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On form, the Northern Irishman will move on to Medinah as a very rich young man. And in the European team room he will hear no dissent over Olazabal’s decision to offer his two captain’s picks to Colsaerts and Ian Poulter, two proven match-play winners who have been consistent contenders this season.
But all may not be so peaceful among the Americans. Certainly, eyebrows were raised when Olazabal’s opposite number, Davis Love III, plumped for experience over form when he named his four wildcard picks.
The eight qualifiers who form the spine of Love’s team — Tiger Woods, Jason Dufner, Masters champion Bubba Watson, US Open title winner Webb Simpson, Keegan Bradley, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar and Phil Mickelson — boast a combined 12 victories this season. But will Love regret not adding Hunter Mahan to that side? This is a player whose two titles in 2012 include one of the two World Match Play Championships in which he beat McIlroy, Europe’s talisman, in the final.
And what of exciting youngster Rickie Fowler, fearsome on his Ryder Cup debut at Celtic Manor two years ago and winner this year at Quail Hollow?
The formbook reveals that Fowler has not had a top-10 finish since a tie for fifth at the Colonial in May. But he is 26th in the latest world rankings, one place above Jim Furyk who did get the nod even though the veteran is the only player on the US team not to have won this year. Love, of course, has been around the Ryder Cup block enough times to know that form alone is no guarantee of points.
Sir Nick Faldo might have expected a decent return from Padraig Harrington at Valhalla in 2008, seeing as the Irishman had won the Open and the US PGA that summer. In the event, Harrington contributed just half a point from his four matches.
Two years later, Faldo’s successor Colin Montgomerie controversially gave one of his picks to an out-of-form Harrington and had his faith rewarded with two points as Europe narrowly won back the Cup that had been lost by Faldo. For Medinah, Olazabal felt Harrington’s form did not deserve a pick. Whether that was the right decision remains to be seen.