Bernhard Langer is hoping he is just three days away from booking his place
in Europe's Ryder Cup team.
Langer has maintained a schedule of playing on both sides of the Atlantic that
other in an attempt to earn a place in the final squad for the Belfry.
Ninth in the points race in this the penultimate week, Langer is desperate
to perform well in the NEC International and seal his place.
But the German is also hoping the tournament can be less controversial this
time round.
He said: "The match has been pretty intense the last few times. I just
hope it can relax a little more and take a little bit of the tension out and tone
things down a little bit.
"We've had many great memories and great moments and it's wrong to just
focus on the two or three bad things that have happened.
"Most of the time the game of golf was the winner and we are all friends
when we walk away from it, whether we are winners or losers.
"It's just a great match, something to look forward to and something to
enjoy."
With America's dozen now known Langer's assessment indicates another close
encounter.
"I think they have a very, very strong team on paper. They always do,
though.
"Every two years we come around to that. The American team generally looks
much stronger on paper than the European team. If you go by the world rankings,
their team is much higher ranked than ours.
"But I like the make-up of our team. We have a good mix of experience
and some new guys in there. Some are long-hitters, some are medium, but very steady
players.
"There's one or two you might like to see in there, but it just shows
that European golf has grown in depth too.
"You can take any of the top 20 or 30 players and put them in there and
they would all do well."
