Bjorn returns to jinx course in countdown to Ryder Cup

Precision timing is presumably what the Omega European Masters is supposed to be all about and is a quality badly needed by a number in the European Ryder Cup team when it comes to their form and fitness. The match at The Belfry is now less than a month away so if the plan has been to peak in September the next few weeks are the time to display some evidence of it.

Thomas Bjorn provided a welcome boost in confidence, both individually and for the team, by winning in Munich last weekend with Bernhard Langer sharing second place. Bjorn is also playing this week in an attempt to maintain his form, while Lee Westwood and Phillip Price have also made the journey up the mountain to play at Crans-sur-Sierre.

Westwood's decline since ending the 2000 season as the European No 1 has been well chronicled, but the Worksop player has been working hard all summer and finally found some encouragement by finishing 15th at the World Invitational in Seattle, his best result of the year. Price missed the cut last week, but hopes the changes he tried out in Munich will bear fruit here. As Bjorn pointed out, there are plenty of rewards for playing well as autumn approaches. In three of the next four weeks there are tournaments with huge purses, the German Masters, the AmEx World Championship and the Dunhill Links at St Andrews.

The other week, of course, is the Ryder Cup, postponed from last year. It was here at Crans that Bjorn re-injured his neck, putting his participation at The Belfry in doubt. "I would certainly have played," Bjorn said yesterday, "but the concern was that I had not played that much golf going into the match." Colin Montgomerie (back) and Padraig Harrington (neck and ankle) are in the same position this year.

This time the Ryder Cup will be Bjorn's seventh event out of eight in a row. "I know myself now," said the Dane, whose form and fitness could make him a crucial member of Sam Torrance's team. "I have taken enough weeks off this year to try and rest up but it doesn't work for me. I need to play a lot of golf to play my best."

This tournament, which as the Swiss Open dates back to 1923, has a more relaxed atmosphere than many events. The course, especially given the air-thinning effects of altitude, is not the most testing on the circuit, but the location is stunning and it shares with the Old Course the convenience of starting and finishing in the town.

Ernie Els, the Open champion who will become a father for the next time next month, starts a long run in Europe here, while Nick Faldo needs to play well this week and next to qualify for the AmEx from the top-20 on the European Order of Merit. He is currently 21st.

Faldo, the most capped player in Ryder Cup history, will be at The Belfry but, on this occasion, only in his capacity as a television commentator. A veteran of several feisty encounters during the Nineties, Faldo said that he hoped the event, in the aftermath of 11 September, could recover some of its sporting principles.

"Hopefully, the intensity is the same and we just get back to what the meaning of the Ryder Cup is all about – 24 men being as competitive as possible and as sporting as possible."

Faldo, whose wife, Valerie, was born and raised not far away in Montreux, is just back from a family holiday by a lake in Idaho. He reported: "Georgia outfished everybody, Matthew outgolfed everyone and Natalie and I were busy soaking ourselves on the ski-doo. It was a great week."