The mantle of underdog has been Europe's preserve since 1979, and its greatest asset. Even though the matchplay format remains an unpredictable sprint, and even though they have lacked both a comparable team spirit and the same motivation as their opponents, the Americans always believed they would win. Until now.

At the K Club, the Ryder Cup is likely to make sense.

No team going for an unprecedented three wins in succession can claim an inferiority complex, and how Europe copes with the burgeoning expectation will determine September's outcome.

A year ago, there were four Europeans and 11 US players in the top 22 of the world rankings, whereas today there are eight Europeans and only seven from the US.

The ranking system has its critics, but the shift is significant.

Notwithstanding the possible twists and turns in form before the teams are finalised, the fact that Colin Montgomerie, Sergio Garcia, Paul McGinley, Jose Maria Olazabal and David Howell are already close to qualification bodes well. Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood are also likely to be at the K Club, so Europe has nothing to fear.

Even if the tugging of forelocks in the direction of the Americans was more tactical than anything else, it won't wash this time. Logic says that Europe could come up with its strongest team ever.

If the atmosphere on the Sunday at Oakland Hills was surreal, it wasn't that Europe were handed the trophy.

While Bernhard Langer, Montgomerie, Garcia, McGinley and Harrington pinched the headlines, other team members were clearly inspired. When Ian Poulter marched off the 13th green during his match against Chris Riley, he had a slightly mad, far-away look. Poulter could see the scoreboards, he knew what the outcome would be, but he played as if his point would make all the difference in the world.

Since Payne Stewart's death and Paul Azinger's demise, America have lacked the necessary intensity. Tiger Woods's unwillingness to embrace the Ryder Cup in the manner of his relentless pursuit of major championships remains a mystery. Since his debut, the world's best player has won eight points from a possible 20, while Montgomerie has taken 14 and a half from a possible 19.

Woods's demeanour last time out wasn't helped by Hal Sutton's foolish gamble of pairing him with Phil Mickelson, however, there were indications at the recent President's Cup that not only were America more of a collective force, but that both Woods and Mickelson had found suitable partners for the K Club in Jim Furyk and Chris DiMarco respectively.

The task of motivating Woods, and of coming up with pairings to match Europe's desire, will be uppermost in Tom Lehman's mind, however, he is likely to be a shrewder captain . . . not hard . . . than the hapless Sutton.

The certainty that Lehman will have to deal with a renewed inquisition over his controversial role at Brookline in the build-up to the matches could actually help in deflecting some of the attention from his players.

As for the home dimension and the overdue staging of the event in this country, it won't escape most people's attention that Ireland's Ryder Cup will be played out on a parkland course that was conceived with an American model in mind, and designed by Arnold Palmer.

Not that Mount Juliet or Druids Glen . . . the losers in a three-horse bidding race . . .

are necessarily representative of the Irish golf experience sought by tourists, but in terms of tradition, the K Club is about as quintessentially Irish as apple pie and cream.

With the European Tour, which effectively controls the Ryder Cup, swayed by a combination of money and facilities, it is no surprise that the matches in 2010 and 2014 have been slated for Celtic Manor and Gleneagles, rather than one of the famous links courses in either Wales or Scotland.

So if there is a lament, in the context of the quality of the course rather than its members' social preferences, that Portmarnock was never a genuine contender, the K Club undoubtedly has the gravitas to host an event which has begun to live up to the hype on this side of the Atlantic anyway.

With Harrington, Clarke and McGinley certain to be in the line-up, and with Graeme McDowell also a contender, Des Smyth's role in Ian Woosnam's back-up team could swell the Irish representation to five. In 1993 there was no player from this country in the side, and for that to happen this year of all years would be unthinkable.

For the majority of the 40,000-a-day spectators who will attend, it wouldn't matter if Montgomerie and Woods battled it out on a pitch and putt course as long as there was enough space to view the drama. You don't need to be a discerning golf watcher to understand that the Belfry is a dreary lay-out that just happens to have two superb matchplay holes, and yet the atmosphere in 2002 and before has been positively electric.

Appropriately, the K Club is in a different league to the Belfry on all counts, and its American footprint won't be a disadvantage as most of Europe's best players already know the course intimately.

On a wider front, expect Ernie Els to have a big season after his lay-off due to injury, don't expect Michelle Wie to threaten Annika Sorenstam's supremacy, watch out for Ryan Moore on the PGA Tour, and keep an eye on the progress of the highly promising amateur Rory McIlroy.

If the annual clamour for one of Harrington, Clarke, and now McGinley, to win a major will be greater than ever, Smyth's chances of picking off one of the main senior titles are probably better.

Meanwhile, Woods is likely to win again at a lengthened Augusta in April and end the season with more majors than anyone other than Jack Nicklaus, but in-depth analysis of his quest for that particular record can wait. How he performs at the K Club will count for more his year.