By Matt Slater BBC Sport Online golf editor

While both sides were disappointed by the decision - no matter how necessary - to postpone the 2001 Ryder Cup, it is clear that the year's delay has done one side a lot more good than the other.

This time last year few would have given the out-of-sorts Europeans a hope against an impressive US team.

Not only did the US team dominate the world rankings - with Tiger Woods, David Duval and Phil Mickelson filling the first three places - they had also just enjoyed a highly encouraging collective performance at the 2001 US Open.

European captain Sam Torrance, on the other hand, had only Sergio Garcia in the top 20 - and he had carded a dismal final-round 77 to slip from third to 12th.

For Torrance it was a miserable weekend, as Lee Westwood, Jose Maria Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Phillip Price and Pierre Fulke missed the cut, and Colin Montgomerie, Nick Faldo and Jesper Parnevik failed to mount serious challenges.

Things did not get much better for Torrance during the rest of the summer. American golfers continued to shine - Duval won the Open and David Toms claimed the PGA - while Europe's big guns struggled.

But now, on the eve of the season's second major, the picture is very different.

This is not a result of a radical change in the fortunes of the European team - or certainly not one that is reflected in the rankings, which are still hugely in America's favour - but more a loss of form for many of Strange's team.

With 10 of the European team and 11 of the US side at Augusta, the Masters would be the first chance to make direct comparisons since the decision to postpone the Ryder Cup was announced last September.

The result will have lifted the heart of every European golf fan tired of looking at the rankings.

Six of the European team made the top 20, with only Niclas Fasth missing the cut.

The Americans, however, had a shocker. Only three made the top 20 and five - Duval, Mark Calcavecchia, Scott Hoch, Jim Furyk and Paul Azinger - missed the cut.

So with the showdown now only three months away, fans on both sides of the Atlantic will be looking at the US Open for more signs of which way the Ryder Cup wind is blowing.

A good showing from Clarke, Montgomerie and co., or further signs of weakness from the supporting cast in the Woods-led US team, and European supporters will truly begin to believe another upset is on the cards.