THE more the mystery deepens, the greater the myths that are propounded. Much has been made of the fact that it's now 30 major championships and counting since a European player last captured one of golf 's four most prestigious titles, and as is the way of the world, reasons are being demanded for this extraordinarily barren spell.

Four players from this side of the Atlantic . . . Justin Rose, Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey and Luke Donald . . . finished in the top-10 at the Masters earlier this month.

On another day, that would have been considered a heartening European performance, but it wasn't another day.

It wasn't a day when Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who have dominated the Augusta landscape in recent years winning a combined five times between 2001 and 2006, were at their best. So, the tournament represented a golden opportunity for the pretenders who would seek a seat at the game's top table.

But instead of one of Europe's ambitious, thrusting players grabbing his chance, Zach Johnson found himself standing in the fading Augusta light with a green jacket on his shoulders. Zach Johnson, by the way, who was outside the world's top-50 unlike a total of 13 Europeans who were in the Masters field, whose one and only win on the PGA Tour was back in 2004, and who had no track record whatsoever at the major championships.

Bernhard Langer, who knows about these sort of things with his two Masters victories, once said, "If you're good enough, you find a way to win the Masters". As Woods and Mickelson faltered, Johnson found a way.

The rest of the Europeans could only watch with envy.

The drought since Paul Lawrie won the British Open at Carnoustie in 1999, when in an echo of Johnson's triumph, Davis Love sniffly commented that a trickedup course had generated the winner it deserved, is impossibly difficult to rationalise.

Admittedly, Woods's stranglehold on the game has drastically reduced the chances of European success, but in the meantime, Rich Beem, Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel, Todd Hamilton and Johnson have all managed to win majors. So too have David Toms, Mike Weir and Michael Campbell who could never be universally regarded as superior to Sergio Garcia, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke and Harrington.

Last week, Tony Jacklin came up with the theory that location was key to ending Europe's dismal run. With three of the majors staged in the USA, a player who plied his trade on the European Tour, and who dropped into America for the big tournaments, was at a huge disadvantage, according to the former Ryder Cup captain.

Like Langer when he holds forth about the Masters, Jacklin has credibility here.

Going completely against the grain, he based himself in America at a time when Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Gary Player were in their prime and won the US Open in 1970 to add to his British Open title of a year earlier.

"The more often that you play in America, the more you gain, " he said. So, if Jacklin is to be believed, Ian Poulter, Donald, Casey and Rose, who have all based themselves in the US, are on the right track. Equally, if he hasn't yet fully bought into a move to America in the first half of the season, Harrington has also concentrated his focus on the PGA Tour.

Yet, you have to wonder if where you play is less important than who you are. No matter what Jacklin or anyone else says about location, no course on the PGA Tour is going to prepare a player for the brutally difficult challenge of Oakmont, which hosts the US Open in June.

Meanwhile, Montgomerie, whose record includes a defeat in a US Open play-off in 1994, runner-up finishes in 1997 and last year when he had his best chance ever of winning a major, as well as another play-off defeat at the 1995 USPGA Championship, never felt it was necessary to move lock, stock and barrel to America. It's doubtful that he would have gone that extra step if he had.

Flip the coin, and consider the case of the leading US players at the British Open. In terms of a comparison with most of the PGA Tour courses, nothing could possibly be further removed than a traditional links in summer.

Yet Americans, including John Daly, Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard, Mark O'Meara, David Duval, Curtis, Hamilton and of course, Woods, who have been conditioned to hit the ball high to receptive greens, have somehow managed to win 10 of the last 12 British Opens on alien terrain. And none, at the time of writing, is thinking about buying a property in the UK.

There has also been speculation that the toughening up of Augusta National has somehow made it more difficult for a European player to win. "It's a long hitter's course now, " said Paul McGinley last year. "If you look at most of the Euros who won there more than once . . . Langer, Faldo, Olazabal . . . all of them won using course management and a magical short game. That's not enough to win at Augusta any more."

Yet, the Masters was won by someone who averaged a mere 265 yards off the tee, and who laid up at every par five. In the end, Johnson's victory was down to course management and a magical short game. Given that McGinley's comments were made when Augusta was soft and playing extremely long, he had a point, however, winning majors appears more and more to be about decisionmaking, attitude and flexibility, rather than a reliance on one particular game.

To compound the mystery of European failure, the barren years since 1999 have coincided with unprecedented Ryder Cup success. On the back of record victories at Oakland Hills and at the K Club, it seems that Montgomerie can play like a worldbeater in match play and still make a mess of a routine seven iron shot from the middle of the fairway with the US Open title on the line.

But according to Nick Faldo, eminently qualified to judge as Europe's all-time leading points scorer in the matches and winner of six majors, the presumption that a strong Ryder Cup team should equate to major dominance has never been valid.

"I don't care how much we keep on talking about how much pressure the players are under in the Ryder Cup.

The fact is, if it isn't a major then it's not the real thing, " said Faldo. "It's match play, you can make seven at a hole and still win.

You have 11 other guys holding your hand. In a major, you're on your own."

Since Lawrie's unexpected victory, Thomas Levet and Thomas Bjorn have come close in their different ways to winning the British Open, while both Montgomerie and Harrington, again in their different ways, have had near misses at the US Open.

Less auspicious were the performances last year of Kenneth Ferrie and Donald who were tied for the lead going into the final round of the US Open and the USPGA Championship respectively before dropping out of contention, while Garcia started out on the Sunday at the British Open only one stroke behind Woods, but eventually finished seven behind.

The drought cannot be explained by the fact that not enough Europeans are based in the US, neither has it any link to the Ryder Cup, and in the case of the Masters, the length of the course does not determine the winner. Equally, it's too simplistic to say that Europe's current generation are too rich. If Tiger Woods is the game's wealthiest player, he is also its ultimate competitor. The truth is that an opportunity was missed at the Masters. "Tiger Woods missing the cut helps us all, it helps Phil Mickelson for God's sake, " said Montgomerie after last year's US Open. "Tiger usually takes two majors a year, so that leaves two available. Phil, Ernie, Goosen and Vijay take the rest of them. Why am I here?"

Europe's best players might ask themselves the same question.

ONES THAT GOT AWAY: EUROPEAN NEAR-MISSES SINCE '99

THOMAS LEVET 2002 British Open at Muirfield A par four at the final play-off hole would have given the title to Levet, but he bogeyed, and then lost to Ernie Els at the first sudden-death hole.

THOMAS BJORN 2003 British Open at Royal St George's Coming off a bogey at the 15th hole, and facing into the short 16th with a two-shot lead, Bjorn put his tee shot into a bunker, and then took three to get out before running up a double-bogey five which effectively handed the title to the unknown American Ben Curtis. "I stood on the 15th tee with one hand on that trophy, " said Bjorn (right) after his implosion, "and I let it go."

THOMAS BJORN 2005 USPGA Championship at Baltusrol Phil Mickelson's birdie four at the final hole put paid to the chances of Bjorn who finished one stroke back in a tie for second place.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE 2006 US Open at Winged Foot Montgomerie only needed a par at the 72nd to secure his first major title, but his seven-iron approach from the middle of the fairway found heavy rough and he carded a doublebogey six to lose to Geoff Oglivy by one stroke

JUSTIN ROSE 2007 Masters Rose trailed by just one stroke with two holes to play, but double-bogeyed the 17th as the unheralded Zach Johnson held his nerve to win the Green Jacket.