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Eduardo Molinari effectively shoved Paul Casey out of the European Ryder Cup team with his hat-trick of birdies to win the at Gleneagles.

Casey was undoubtedly in the side until the Italian forced the issue to make it possible for brothers to appear in the biennial match for the first time since 1963.

But the real selection issue was between Casey and Padraig Harrington and it was a brave call to favour the latter despite his three major titles. On raw form the nod would surely have gone to the Englishman.

While Harrington was sitting out the weekends of the Open and USPGA, Casey was challenging at St Andrews and banking a healthy cheque at Whistling Straits. This, though, was a judgement by captain Colin Montgomerie that wasn't based purely on form.

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While Corey Pavin says he is going to enjoy the process of deciding his Ryder Cup wildcard picks, it is hard to imagine his European opposite number feeling the same.

Colin Montgomerie is in an impossible position as he considers the three players he will select to complete Europe's 12-man team to take on the United States at .

The Scot's predicament is somewhat of his own making, while the politics of the European game and the indifference of some of the continent's leading players are also to blame.

Four of the five leading candidates for Europe's wildcard places are competing in the first , with three of the FedEx Four having passed up the chance of fighting for an automatic Ryder Cup slot in the final qualifying event here at Gleneagles.

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two years ago by generating an irrepressible team spirit - and it appears to have become an enduring quality. The Americans certainly seem to be edging it in terms of attitude in the build-up to the 2010 match.

Current United States skipper now knows two thirds of his side to play at in October with the eight automatic qualifiers confirmed at the end of the . He also knows that the players who have made it on to their side are thrilled to be there.

Amid the bitter disappointment of losing the final major of the year, both Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson spoke of delight that they had done enough to represent their country against Europe. For them, it was the primary objective of their week in Wisconsin.

Contrast that with the impression of ambivalence from the likes of Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey and Luke Donald, who are prepared to take their chances on a captain's pick rather than fight to the end of the qualification period for a place in Europe's team.

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"Exceeding Expectations" - so says the advertising blurb for the PGA of America, the body that represents America's teaching professionals and organises the final major of the year, the .

But while the ads extol the virtues of proper tutoring to help our amateur games improve beyond all natural level of hope, when it comes to the best players on the planet it is as much a case of managing expectations as exceeding them.

As we head into the tournament they call "Glory's Last Shot", which is being staged at the spectacular in Wisconsin, expectation levels are all over the place for so many of the game's big names.

Never have they been lower for the player who continues to cling on to the world number one ranking, . One of the hallmarks of his career has been how he has managed the way the rest of the field expects him to play.

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