"I'll be looking for a back door out of here if I lose, " he admits.

With just over three months to go before the team for September's matches against the USA at the K Club is finalised, several of Europe's leading players had been fending off questions about the ifs, buts, whys and hows of qualification. Not Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley mind, who have made no secret of their goal, but others simply wanted to play down the relevance of the Ryder Cup in their seasons.

Then as the European Tour was about to swing towards Britain and Ireland, where results at the British Masters, this week's Nissan Irish Open and the lucrative BMW Championship at Wentworth could certainly shake up the European points list, it was Woosnam himself who made Ryder Cup qualification an issue.

Speaking at the Italian Open earlier this month, the captain insisted that he wanted players who moved between the PGA Tour in America and the European Tour, and who needed to make up ground in the qualifying race, to prioritise tournaments in Europe. "People who play more in Europe will have a better chance of getting in the team, " he said.

Realising that if his team had to face the Americans today it would not include Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Thomas Bjorn, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Harrington, Woosnam clearly felt he needed to rattle a few cages. He made specific mention of Harrington and Westwood, who have both played in the last three Ryder Cup matches, and when Harrington indicated last week that he might add the French Open at the end of June to his schedule, it was exactly what Woosnam wanted to hear.

However, Westwood was less enamoured of Woosnam's suggestion that Europe and not America was the place to be for Ryder Cup aspirants. Currently in 14th place in the world points list, based on the accumulation of world ranking points, and 31st in the European list which awards a point for each euro earned, Westwood said he wasn't prepared to change his schedule "for the sake of playing one week's golf".

If that wasn't enough of a dent in Woosnam's leadership, Bjorn was also sufficiently irritated to endorse Westwood's position. "I won't cut down on my US schedule, " the Dane said. "I don't think you can participate at the top of the world game if you don't play that number of tournaments in America. My golfing life doesn't revolve around the Ryder Cup either, but I would certainly like to be a part of it."

But Woosnam is adamant that he has made his point to the players, and he won't be drawn into a war of words with Westwood or Bjorn.

"Look, if the qualifying system was on world ranking points alone, then everyone would still be playing in the US. We've got to have some support for the European Tour and at the moment, this is the best way of doing it.

I've mentioned Harrington and Westwood, and there's also Bjorn, who's a great player, and I think he's going to be concentrating on European events most of the time."

However diplomatic Woosnam is now, if either Westwood or Bjorn fail to qualify by right, it is unlikely that there will be any amnesia when the captain's two wild card picks are being considered.

The tension generated by the players juggling schedules on two continents is nothing new. The qualifying system incorporating both the world rankings and European Tour prize money was introduced after Sergio Garcia had to be given a wild card in 2001 despite the fact that he was the highest ranked European in the world.

The sticking point is that to be eligible for the Ryder Cup, a player has to play in a minimum of 11 events on the European Tour. At one stage in the lead-up to the 2004 matches at Oakland Hills, it appeared that the Americanbased Luke Donald was not going to be eligible, but he was persuaded to return to Europe, where he won twice, and was eventually chosen as a wild card by Bernhard Langer.

Because they concentrate their activities on the PGA Tour, Woosnam will in all probability not be able to consider Freddie Jacobsen, Thomas Levet, Greg Owen, Jesper Parnevik and Alex Cejka even if one or all of them run into some good form during the summer.

He has already pencilled Henrik Stenson, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie into the team, while David Howell and Garcia also look sure to qualify. With too many high-profile players outside of the automatic top10 places, McGinley's knee operation last Thursday is another set back for Woosnam. McGinley needs to win a further 300,000 to book his spot, and even if he is able to return for the US Open in mid-June, the surgery has come at a bad time.

"You can't think too much about wild cards at this stage, " says Woosnam, "but if no Irish player qualifies by right then there will be pressure to select one as a wild card. But there are no guarantees for anyone. It might just be easier to pick the players who are at numbers 11 and 12 in the list, but I've got to think of the team as a whole first."

He had thought about having a meeting for the players most likely to make the team at Wentworth this week, but he will now wait until the European Open which will be played on the Smurfit Course at the K Club in early July. "It's not the right time, the team hasn't shaped up yet, but at the European Open we'll have a get-together, look at the hotel and it might involve some of the players going out on the Palmer Course as well."

Woosnam has already been mixing and matching players, coming up with possible pairings, and he says that once the team is settled, he will canvass the views of the players, and his vice-captains, Des Smyth and Peter Baker, in order to get a feel for the most effective pairings.

As for his own style of captaincy, he certainly won't be as hands-on as the intrusive Seve Ballesteros, and he'll probably be less of a strategist than Bernhard Langer.

"I think every player knows his own game, and knows how to play the game, or else he wouldn't be involved in the Ryder Cup in the first place.

I'll try to stay on the outside and let them get on with it, and I'll only give some advice if I feel I have to."

In the hope that most of his leading players qualify by right, and in the hope that he doesn't have to use his wild cards on two of Europe's more experienced Ryder Cup campaigners, he has already offered his first piece of advice.

"I think you'll see a different team in another three months' time, " Woosnam insists. Both the captain and anyone interested in the Ryder Cup will be banking on it.