Talk turns to who will draw wild card

TO LISTEN to the players, the caddies, the media and just about everyone except the sponsors, you would think this week was all about the Ryder Cup and little to do with the BMW International Open and its tidy prize fund of €1.8m.

The German car company faces this situation every two years - you suspect they don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Though their front-line profile might suffer, they are assured just about every top player will be here, whether he is assured of a Ryder Cup team place or not.

All eyes are on which of the borderline Ryder Cup team candidates is doing what, even if the top of the leaderboard is dominated by others.