Mark James believes the pressure of playing in the Ryder Cup is comparable only to being in contention to win a Major title on the final day, and he should know.
A player in seven editions, he was also captain in 1999 where there was controversy and furore before, during and after the Brookline showdown.
James admits memories were again evoked “a wee bit” when Paul McGinley, Europe’s captain in this weekend’s contest at Gleneagles, chose his wild cards, plumping for rookie Stephen Gallacher instead of former world No1 Luke Donald.
James surprisingly chose debutant Andrew Coltart rather than the experienced pair of Bernhard Langer and Nick Faldo, and suffered criticism when America came back to pip Europe 14.5 to 13.5 in a fiery affair that led to claims of gamesmanship, and that the hosts had incited hostility from their supporters.
Wild celebrations following a dramatic 40-foot match-winning putt from Justin Leonard, while Jose Maria Olazabal still had a chance to halve the hole, created strained relations.
Time has perhaps healed old wounds and James has been left with some treasured memories. He said: “I loved it and wouldn’t have missed it for anything. The Ryder Cup is a fantastic experience, no matter what, but it’s the hardest part of the captaincy, the wild cards.
“In the end for Paul it was probably straightforward, but it can be difficult and stressful. I got shingles two or three days after the wild cards had been selected and they say stress brings that on.
“I think occasionally too much credence is given to experience and past performance and not enough to some up-and-coming players who may have played extremely well and deserve a spot.
“I had a situation where Langer was off form and whether or not to pick him. The criticism of the wild cards wasn’t that great and the Press are always looking for an angle on that sort of thing and thinking ‘has he made a mistake?’. But that’s to be expected and I was happy with my choices.”
Any regrets? “No, none at all,” he adds. “Would I have kept the team as it was? Absolutely.
“We all wanted to win and my job was to marshall the team to get as many points as we could. It didn’t work in the end, but we tried.
“The object is to get as many points irrespective of anyone’s feelings or sensitivities, or what they might think. OK, things might not go your way, you might make mistakes and not do the right thing, but that’s the objective of the captain and the team.
“It’s also nerve-wracking as a player, especially if you are hitting off the first tee and in the first series of matches.
“Nerves come back to bite you during any time of the competition and you have to be in control of your emotions and in control of your game.
“There’s a huge amount of pressure, more pressure than you might find apart from possibly trying to win a Major on the final day. At times it is even worse. If you mess up in this you are letting your whole team down and not just yourself, which is not nice.
“Mentally it is hard. It’s pretty relentless with everything going on around it. Guys want to get the course mapped out, but they are working in the gym, practising putting and the time just disappears. The pressure mentally and physically is great.
“Players are much fitter now with personal trainers and physically they might be up to it, but mentally it’s a different matter.”
James, 60, thinks Gallacher has the right temperament for the three-day challenge. The Scot has shown great resolve and quality, and nowhere more so than in the UAE back in February at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
On the 25th anniversary of the contest, first won by James himself in 1989, Gallacher stole the show, beating big names like Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson and Tiger Woods to defend his title.
James, there as one of the former champions, says: “He was outstanding in Dubai.
“He is a player who is very much on form and a very good player on that course, probably strong enough to play five rounds if his captain wants him to which is always useful. He brings an awful lot to the team.
“I was absolutely desperate for him to get that wild card because no one deserves it more than him. He has played consistently brilliantly throughout the points period.
“It would have gone, certainly, to Luke Donald and someone who has been out for form for quite a while now.”
If they perform as expected, James believes Europe will be unstoppable and retain the trophy they won at Medinah in 2012.
But he also recalls 1995 when he was part of the team that went to America as outsiders and stunned the hosts.
“1989 was the best I’d played in a Ryder Cup when I won three of four points,” says James. “We retained the trophy then, but possibly 1995 was better given the circumstances.
“We were written off going over to the States, and two points behind going into the singles and it looked like a steady procession for the US to win.
“But we came from behind to beat them and it was a shock to them and a surprise to us. That made it incredibly satisfying.
“That shows the danger of taking anything for granted at home. If America get the breaks, some play above themselves, if they were to perform like Tiger at his peak it might make it different, but it’s still hard to see our team getting beaten.”
The confidence in the European team is understandable. Of the world’s top six, four will be in their ranks, led by the mercurial talents of McIlroy, while the USA will be without Dustin Johnson – who has taken a break for personal reasons – and Jason Dufner, ruled out with a neck injury.
James played in the era of Jack Nicklaus and US captain Tom Watson, and when the former, an 18-time Major winner, was at his peak.
“Jack was the best golfer I’ve ever seen,” he says. “But I think McIlroy could get close and might be up there in a year or two’s time. Give it three years and another four Majors and suddenly he’s on eight.
“That puts him among the all-time greats. My heroes were Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer and I was lucky enough to play with them as a professional. Watson was also incredible.
“But Rory has been fantastic. Some of the golf he played this year was indeed exciting to a fellow pro and that doesn’t happen very often – and as consistently as Rory produced.
“Most people thought he would come back after his bad year in 2012, but just how good he is going to be you can never be certain.
“He has that X-Factor and makes winning look easy. There’s not many like that.”
Woods was the same, but perhaps never will be again as injury has left him struggling to recapture the form that earned him 14 Majors and forced him to miss out on Gleneagles. James, though, does not think he would have made much difference.
He said: “To miss Dustin Johnson and Jason Dufner is an absolute body blow for Tom Watson and he must be furious with Johnson and frustrated with Dufner.
“They are bigger misses than Tiger, who is way off form and hardly had a good tournament all year.
“But Europe look so strong and it’s virtually impossible to pick out anyone who might be seen as a weak player. There’s huge depth and that’s why it’s difficult to see them being beaten.”
