Love has taken a gamble on gentleman Jim

We’re not sure when the transformation came, but at some point in time, the Ryder Cup morphed into a national security endeavour.

Used to be a nice, little golf match that organisers on both sides of the pond felt honoured to share, but no more.

Maintaining a code of silence on the first-session pairings until early in the evening the day before things get under way? Seriously silly. But so is the way each side guards its captain’s picks as if they have the combination to the nuclear football.

Ah, but try as they might, the Americans this year couldn’t keep much of a secret. If you didn’t know that Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk were two of the four captain’s picks, then consider your embrace of the PGA Tour to be worthy of a triple-bogey. Stricker was on the team, if for no other reason than he was a natural teammate for Tiger Woods. And Furyk? Well, he’s been wearing red, white, and blue for the Americans’ international cause on an annual basis since 1997.

Furyk was a no-brainer, as they say.

The only thing is, now that he’s here and ready to tee it up at Medinah CC and you’ve studied where he fits into the lineup, the question has to be asked: Just why was he such a lock?

Absorb all that is Furyk — his tenacity, his consistency, his demeanour, his grittiness — and you find yourself ready to defend his inclusion on this year’s Ryder Cup team with all your might. But then cold, hard numbers appear and you have to catch yourself.

Begin with the fact that of his previous seven appearances in the Ryder Cup, the Americans are 2-5 and had it not been for captain Mark James’ bumbling of the singles’ lineup in 1999, that record would be 1-6.

Then there are Furyk’s efforts in the team competitions — a dismal 3-5-2 in foursomes and a shocking 1-8-1 in four-ball.

Repeat: 1-8-1.

For all the questions that are thrown toward Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for their Ryder Cup woes, neither of them have anything as pitiful as Furyk’s four-ball record on their resumes. Which begs the question: What about Furyk’s Ryder Cup record made captain Davis Love consider him so crucial?

“One of the most respected players on tour,” Love said, and then he brought out the heavy artillery. “He was 5-0 in his last international match.”

What Love didn’t add was this: That 5-0 record came in the Presidents Cup, which is a nice, little Sunday picnic when compared to the Ryder Cup. They are international team matches, yes, but they have nothing else in common, so to use that as testimony on behalf of your Furyk selection is shameless.

Ignored was this titbit: Furyk was 0-2-1 in Wales two autumns ago.

Or this morsel: His only four-ball win came in 2006.

Then there’s this head-shaker: Against those names who currently make up Team Europe, Furyk is 1-15-3.

Repeat: 1-15-3.

Incredible as it seems, Furyk hasn’t experienced a win over a member of anyone on Team Europe 2012 since he trounced Garcia in singles in 1999. He is 0-4-2 in matches that have involved Lee Westwood, 0-3 against Luke Donald, 1-5-1 when matched with Garcia. Toss in failures to beat Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, and Ian Poulter and you start to wonder if Love crunched numbers of this flavour?

Chances are, he didn’t. Chances are he took Furyk because the man has been the definitive loyal soldier and he personifies being a team player and after having earned his spot onto the previous seven US Ryder Cup teams, he was owed at least one captain’s picks.

We’ll find out soon if such thinking helps or hinders the Americans.