Giving team captains, whether it be in the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup, a couple of free picks to round out their teams is bound to arouse come controversy. Colin Montgomerie passing over Paul Casey for last year's Ryder Cup was a contentious decision, but ultimately justified because the European team won.

If they had lost, the Captain would have looked much less wise for leaving out such highly ranked player.

US Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples months ago announced he was going to pick Tiger Woods, a decision that forced him to choose between Tour Championship winner Billy Haas and Keegan Bradley, the PGA Champion.

Bradley was the unlucky one and Australia's Geoff Ogilvy for one thinks it disappointing that Bradley was forsaken for Woods.

International team captain Greg Norman waited until the end of the Tour Championship and could hardly have left out Aaron Baddeley after he finished only a shot out of the Haas, Hunter Mahan playoff.

His final pick went to local Robert Allenby, a man with almost unmatched knowledge of Royal Melbourne, a course of so many moods and complexities.

As my BPL colleague Charlie Happell well points out, Allenby is one of the least good putters on the tour in America and Royal Melbourne's new greens will test even the surest of nerves.

The sole reason Allenby is a wise pick is the golf course. Royal Melbourne, designed by Alister MacKenzie, is one of the most unique courses in the world and it is our version of Augusta National. Or perhaps more accurately Augusta National is America's version of Royal Melbourne.

When the greens are hard and fast - as they are sure to be in the middle of November - you must drive to the right parts of the fairways and then hit perfectly controlled irons into the flags. Unlike the regular fare on the PGA Tour you must land the ball short of the flags and judge the run and the bounce to get anywhere near the cup. It is a more sophisticated form of the game, more akin to the demands of the British links and it takes some learning.

The Americans had not much idea how to play the course in 1998, especially in the hot north winds of the opening two days. It is no coincidence that week has been the only International win since the inception of the event in 1994.

Norman has on his team a couple of South Africans, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, who know the course and what to expect.

He also has three Koreans, K.J Choi, YE Yang and Kyung-tae Kim, the Japanese Ryo Ishikawa and the US Masters champion Charl Schwartzel.

None have played the course and the two or three practice rounds will be a crash course in how to play it. For that Norman will place a great reliance on Allenby, Ogilvy, Baddeley and Adam Scott who know the course and its subtleties better than any pros in the game.

Jason Day played one Heineken Classic as a teenager so he will be just a little less green that the some of his team-mates.

So the practice rounds will be important but this is essentially a pairs event with only Sunday's play featuring head-to-head singles match play. The other four series of matched are split between foursomes and four-ball play.

Norman, with five Australians in the team, now has the chance to send out the locals with those to whom the golf course is sure to be something of a mystery. In 1998, Peter Thomson got tremendous value out of the pairing of Craig Parry and Shigeki Maruyama. The Japanese smilingly noted at the end of the week: ‘I just hit it where Mr Parry told me.'

Allenby needs to use his knowledge to advantage by winning matches and obviously that is critical but Norman will also use him a teacher for those who have never seen one of the most difficult to fathom golf courses in the game.