Caddie's Role: As the sludge that had become The K Club by two Sundays ago began to get back to a squidgy, at-best-yielding terrain, the show had moved on to North London for the American Express World Championship.

If this is not the ultimate form of professional golf, it is as close as it gets - given that it is a hybrid event that offers exemptions to players from the world tours of Australasia, Asia, Japan, Africa, Europe and of course the USA to travel and compete against each other.

Now the world's best tend to be American.

If they do not come from America they spend a hell of a lot of their time golfing there. So lest we forget where you establish yourself and secure your future as a recognised professional, it is on the US Tour. If you do not perform there you rarely get a global mention. Tiger Woods blitzed a world-class field last weekend. The Ryder Cup euphoria has settled.

This is not to detract from the heroic efforts of the European Ryder Cup team, but the reality is that these thoroughbreds perform their best in individual competition.

In attempting to analyse why this is so, my guess is that somehow those putts that the best players in the world hole under the pressure of a regular strokeplay event do not motivate them enough to actually go ahead and make them in a mere team matchplay.

I do not think it is a conscious process, rather a subconscious lack of intensity.

What pushes the best to excellence that eludes the average is their desire to win.

If that desire is not strong enough then the chances are you will not win.

So if you were to ask Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson over a cold glass of beer what are their golfing goals, it would be interesting to hear if the Ryder Cup featured highly on their shopping list of titles.

These players are products of the system that has afforded them private jets and more homes than they could possibly live in even if they had extended families of mid-20th-century Irish proportions.

The prize funds on the US Tour are top heavy. Last weekend it was $1.3 million for the winner and $750,000 for the runner-up. There is no doubt it is worth stepping up a little higher in order to reach into that top drawer stuffed with dollars.

In Europe the distribution of prize funds seems to follow more of a socialist model.

Of course, the winners in the US don't quite take it all; top-10 finishes are well rewarded too.

Therein lies a further problem for the US Ryder Cup team. Their selection procedure doesn't really recognise those who finish outside the top 10. If it did, maybe those who fell outside this category would be more motivated by the Ryder Cup than the individual predators that are seemingly thrilled only by the lone kill.

Tom Lehman did all he could to unite this US team. He left no stone unturned but still they failed miserably. Many critics felt it was their lack of cohesion that worked against them. I am absolutely certain this was not their problem in Straffan; they were most definitely a team.

Perhaps the root of the Americans' problem is a chronic lack of recognition of the team event.

You may say who could blame them. If you are taking care of business as a professional golfer, it means you are making money. They are all doing that.

Getting selected for the Ryder Cup team is not what is getting them out on the range every day of their lives.

There is no doubt that the wonderful golfing jamboree that arrived here a few weeks back has become embedded in the popular psyche over the past decade.

It is largely a result of the change of system from Great Britain and Ireland team to a team encompassing the whole of Europe, which made the event more competitive and turned the tide of American dominance.

The problem is that many new golf fans may be fooled by the strong marketing of the event into thinking that this is the biggest prize in golf.

The event represents one week of a golfer's two-year cycle. To compete and win it is a great accolade but it is not gaining the player world ranking points.

Our own star of a couple of weeks back Paul McGinley did not qualify to play in last weekend's World Championship, which comprises the world's best golfers.

There is a further theory that some of my American friends threw at me last week as they conducted the Straffan post mortem. Seemingly, America the superpower is under attack from "insurgents" on all sides. I know it sounds paranoid, but they feel every other nation is so up to beating the US because they sit so high on their pedestals. And so it is almost impossible for the Americans to win.

It seems to be the way in baseball and basketball, where it is undisputed that the best players in the world at both these sports are most definitely Americans.

A further argument I heard last week was that the US players have no affinity with the PGA of America. This body makes all the loot out of the Ryder Cup. Somehow, the argument goes, the players feel they are playing for an alien body that is reaping the rewards of their talent.

One reporter cynically mentioned last week that it is no surprise that Tiger made his post-Ryder Cup comeback in the American Express event, where the slogan is "My life, my card".

Conversely, a colleague of mine suggested to Sergio Garcia - an inspiration to the European team in Kildare but conspicuously below his best in Watford - that he should have been a soccer player. In strokeplay he was not quite up to Tiger's level but in the team environment he thrived.

It's time for the US to rethink their selection policy and focus on who wants to play and who is there because he feels obliged.

One member of the victorious European Ryder Cup team finished in the top 10 at the WGC on Sunday. That was Luke Donald, and he plays on the US Tour.

As the dust settles on The K Club after arguably the most spectacular event in the history of Irish sport, it is easier to see that the weekly routine of four-round tournaments makes the US Tour the real melting pot for professional golfers.