With €9m on-course earnings this year, Rory is the only show in town

All 12 of the US Ryder Cup team have qualified for next week’s Tour Championship, the final tournament on the PGA Tour’s lucrative FedEx Cup play-off series, but it’s a safe bet Europe’s Jose-Maria Olazabal was the slightly the happier of the two captains after events in Indiana and the Netherlands over the weekend.

Not only did Rory McIlroy win for the second successive week in the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick but Lee Westwood tied for second with Phil Mickelson while in Europe Peter Hanson emerged victorious in the KLM Open.

Mickelson and Tiger Woods, and to a lesser extent Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson, were the Americans who demonstrated that their game is where they want it to be headed for the Tour finale starting at East Lake, Atlanta on Thursday week and leading from there to the Ryder Cup showdown at Medinah, near Chicago, a week later.