But at the same time, an alarming number of the 2006 K Club Ryder Cup heroes are out in the cold right now.

For defending champions Europe the new caps would be Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, who is currently ranked 4th in the Euro standings, and England's Nick Dougherty, who is 6th.

For the Americans the irrepressible Boo Weekley, winner of last week's Verizon Heritage, would be the only new face.

Others who would make the European team by dint of their top 10 positions in the standings right now, are England's Lee Westwood (1) and Justin Rose (2), Swedes Henrik Stenson (3) and Robert Karlsson (5), Spain's Miguel Angel Jiminez (7), Germany's Martin Kaymer (8), Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen and Ireland's 2007 Open Champion Padraig Harrington.

This means, that as things stand at the moment, some of Europe's leading Ryder Cup warriors, including all-time great, Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, and two of the K Club's biggest heroes, Sergio Garcia of Spain and Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland, wouldn't make the team via qualifying among the top ten on the standings.

Along with other hopefuls like Paul Casey, Luke Donald and David Howell, who also played in the last Ryder Cup in Ireland, they would have to bank on being given one of Nick Faldo's two wild cards.

In the case of the Americans, leading Ryder Cup performers of the past like David Toms, Davis Love III and Chris DiMarco have yet to make an appearance on the US standings this year and are not among the eight who would qualify right now.

They are, (in order from the top) Tiger Woods, Stewart Cink, 3 Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Boo Weekley (USA), Steve Stricker, Zach Johnson and Justin Leonard.

Love, Thoms and DiMarco are luckier than their European counterparts currently out of the qualifying bubbles.

US captain Paul Azinger will be naming four wild card picks, as opposed to Europe's two when making up his 12-man team.

In so far as Europe is concerned, six doesn't go into two, so Montgomerie, Garcia, Clarke, Casey, Donald and Howell are going to have to get something going pretty quickly if they hope to get back into the Ryder Cup race.

The months are ticking away quickly.

RYDER CUP STANDINGS AT APRIL 21, 2008

EUROPE:
1 Lee Westwood (Eng) 1499315.62
2 Justin Rose (Eng) 1239606.30
3 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 1163564.75
4 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 921032.57
5 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 887002.39
6 Nick Dougherty (Eng) 886408.53
7 Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 805820.46
8 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 791174.81
9 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 755282.33
10 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 745336.38
11 Steve Webster (Eng) 738660.08
12 Soren Hansen (Den) 734505.78
13 Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 721196.36
14 Phillip Archer (Eng) 607269.77
15 Ian Poulter (Eng) 591261.40
16 Damien McGrane (Irl) 589928.34
17 Simon Dyson (Eng) 561123.49
18 Ross Fisher (Eng) 557789.01
19 Alastair Forsyth (Sco) 534925.00
20 Paul Casey (Eng) 526445.42

Note: When the deadline comes up in August, the leading ten players on the above standings will qualify for the 12-man Ryder Cup team with two additional wild cards to be selected by the European captain Nick Faldo

THE UNITED STATES:1 Tiger Woods (USA) 8665.63
2 Stewart Cink (USA) 3170.75
3 Phil Mickelson (USA) 2861.13
4 Jim Furyk (USA) 2811.54
5 Boo Weekley (USA) 2122.00
6 Steve Stricker (USA) 1991.12
7 Zach Johnson (USA) 1956.68
8 Justin Leonard (USA) 1801.10
9 Brandt Snedeker (USA) 1720.76
10 Sean O'Hair (USA) 1691.61
11 Woody Austin (USA) 1609.18
12 J.B. Holmes (USA) 1591.04
13 D.J. Trahan (USA) 1288.82
14 Hunter Mahan (USA) 1207.22
15 Steve Lowery (USA) 1193.66
16 Jerry Kelly (USA) 1175.90
17 Bart Bryant (USA) 1160.19
18 Johnson Wagner (USA) 1119.22
19 Chad Campbell (USA) 1053.47
20 Joe Durant (USA) 1008.42

Note: When the deadline comes up in August, the leading eight players on the above standings will qualify for the 12 man team with four additional wild cards to be selected by the European captain Nick Faldo