He may have finished only in a share for 11th place, but Ian Woosnam would have left Hamburg on Sunday night feeling very satisfied with what had transpired during the four days of the Deutsche Bank Players' Championship.

It was not as a player that Woosnam would have felt particularly happy with the 72 holes of the Gut Kaden course, although his own form was better than it had been for a very long time.

However, if donning his other hat as the captain of the Europe Ryder Cup team, Woosie must have been delighted with the performances produced by two players in particular.

First, Robert Karlsson confirmed his position as one of the European Tour's hottest players of late by not so much merely winning the tournament as trampling the rest into the dust by putting a four-stroke gap between him and the pursuing pack.

His 25-under-par total was a record for the tournament and also equalled the biggest win of the season, matching his Swedish compatriot Johan Edfors' tally in the TCL Classic in China in March.

It also moved the lofty Swede into seventh place in the Ryder Cup rankings. At last, he felt able to talk about his prospects, something he signally refused to do when he won the Wales Open two months ago.

He was controversially omitted from the 1999 team at Brookline when he finished 11th in the standings, captain Mark James picking Scotland's Andrew Coltart instead, so he was probably right to keep his own counsel at Celtic Manor.

He probably didn't want to tempt fate, especially in the country of the captain's birth. He will have to fall down a manhole to fail this time.

Swedish players have performed sterling deeds in Europe's cause over the years and they have also been regular winners on tour. In the light of that, it is a small curiousity that in claiming his seventh triumph, Karlsson became the most Swedish prolific winner in the history of the Tour, surpassing the record held previously held by Anders Forsbrand.

It is nigh-on impossible to assess how players will respond to Ryder Cup golf. It can inspire some to great deeds -- witness Phillip Price and Paul McGinley at The Belfry in 2002 -- and it can petrify others. No names there, it wouldn't be fair.

However, we suspect that Karlsson will make a good fist of it. He's a different man these days to the edgy, slightly nervy character who was sometimes consumed with self-doubt and running on empty when it came to self-confidence.

It is the major reason why he has won twice this season after a four-year hiatus. Back then he was capable of implosion when the hammer came down. Nowadays, he exudes a massive calm. It is pretty impressive, to tell the truth.

Meanwhile, Woosnam surely must have uttered a quiet hurrah for one of the two men who finished second. The captain would have been pleased enough for Charl Schwartzel, for the South African is a pleasant young fellow, but he would have been absolutely delighted that the other runner-up was Lee Westwood.

Westwood has had his travails over the years, never more so than when he fell into a dreadful trough after ending Colin Montgomerie's seven-year run as winner of the order of merit in 2000. He eventually recovered his form in 2003 and maintained it in 2004, but he was curiously muted earlier in the season until running into better order in recent weeks.

True, this result, his best finish of the season, only helped him to improve his position in the Ryder Cup table to 21st. He will have to play out of his socks to push him into an automatic place in the table and, to be honest, it is not likely to happen. But it was a start.

However, Westwood has a fine Ryder Cup record and was splendid at Oakland Hills two years ago. Woosnam, be in no doubt about it, will be looking to slot Westwood in as a wild-card pick.

If he continues to play as he did in Hamburg, where he staged a grandstand finish with birdies at three of the last four holes, there will be every good reason why he should get the nod from Woosnam to play in his fifth match.

There is always a place for youth, of course, and both teams will have their share of it this year, but captains also like to a leavening of experience in their 12 good men and true. Westwood would give him that.

All in all, then, a good weekend for Europe. Woosnam has been virtually assured of having a hot player in his team and has witnessed an encouraging performance from a player who has been there and done it. It could scarcely have gone better.