Will familiarity breed contempt for Europe?

Eurpoe seem to hold all the aces ahead of the Ryder Cup, not least home advantage.

Given how things have gone in the last few weeks with Rory McIlroy’s incredible feats and the injury crisis amongst the American players, we’d be favourites for an away match.

As it is, virtually every one of our team should have played at Gleneagles in the Johnnie Walker Championship down the years.

There’s no substitute for local knowledge and previous experience of a course in competition play.

That was best shown up at Valderrama in 1997. That is a very tricky layout, but the Europeans knew it from the annual Volvo Masters. We won by just a single point, but it took the best part of three days for the Americans to learn the nuances of that course.

Gleneagles doesn’t hold quite the same terrors. I was lucky enough to play the PGA Centenary Course a few weeks ago and it’s barely changed from how I remembered it. There have been one or two adjustments to the 18th to create a more dramatic closing hole, but they are tweaks rather than major alterations. It’s now a typical stadium course, designed with spectators in mind and a perfect venue for the Ryder Cup.

The Americans should like it as this is an idyllic setting to play golf. But they’ll be playing catch-up against their opponents.

I’m sure US captain Tom Watson would have been disappointed that only two players Keegan Bradley and Jim Furyk took up his offer to go and play Gleneagles just before The Open. I was certainly surprised. I would have felt the same in Tom’s position. But it’s hard to criticise guys like Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler, who went to play at the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen instead.

What’s more, professional sportspeople can be very superstitious. Some of them wouldn’t want to go along if they weren’t sure of making the team.

One player who has good memories of the course is Jordan Spieth. He was part of the victorious American team in the Junior Ryder Cup staged there in 2010, and he won all three of his matches. Obviously, the main event dwarfs it in comparison, but Spieth will return in September with knowledge that might reduce his nerves ahead of his first appearance.

As home captain, Paul McGinley can request how the course is set up, but I don’t think he’ll go as far as US skipper Davis Love at Medinah.

The fairways will be quite wide but the greens won’t be as quick as normal because of the time of year.

I preferred not to trick the course up, let the players showcase their skills, and hope your team is victorious come Sunday evening.