So this is it: 12 months, hundreds of points and millions of euros since the qualifying process began, the race to make Europe’s Ryder Cup team reaches its long-awaited climax in today’s final round of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. While Justin Rose and Soren Hansen effectively secured two of the three remaining automatic places yesterday, a couple of Englishmen are still slugging it out for the remaining spot.

Read between the lines of an otherwise ordinary leaderboard, and the real story is the tooth-and-nail battle between Oliver Wilson and Nick Dougherty to make Nick Faldo’s team. Hansen, who is ninth on the qualifying table, looks almost certain to remain there after a 68 left him two off the tournament lead. Wilson, eight off the pace after a 68, is 10th in the list, and clinging on for dear life. Dougherty, who is 13th, did his utmost to keep up, with a battling 69, but he is four behind the Dane, six off the lead, and, in truth, relying on a miracle.

All of which has taken precedence over the competition itself. For the record, the man in front is Frenchman Gregory Havret, on 11 under after a third-round 69. Anthony Wall, who shot 65, is just a stroke behind, while Lee Westwood’s 66 put him among five players sharing third place on nine under. Not one of them, not even Rose on eight under, would pretend that his shot at victory here is the week’s burning issue.

The stoic resistance of Wilson could turn out to be our abiding memory of this event. The man who is trying to become the first without a win to play in the Ryder Cup demonstrated more of the backbone that had supported him in the second round. Having been six over par after seven holes on Friday, he made the cut courtesy of an eagle and birdie on the back nine, then carded six birdies yesterday.

It has been a stirring show of strength by the Mansfield player, in circumstances that have been keeping him awake at night. He says it has been tough to switch off, waking at 2am yesterday and returning to sleep just half an hour before his wake-up call, but the tension eased with this performance.

Wilson is on three under, and stubbornly refusing to relinquish the last automatic spot. Without wishing to suffocate the event in hypothetical permutations, suffice it to say that, if Wilson is to miss out, Dougherty needs a win, and even that might not be enough.

The 26-year-old has been trying his heart out at every possible event, despite the loss of his mother earlier this year, yet somehow has to find room for one last rally. “It’s a big day for me,” he admitted. “I’ve got an opportunity to achieve something. The culmination of a year’s golf comes down to one day, and I have to go out there and play great. It’s going to be fun. I have nothing to lose. I really do think I need to win, but it’s feasible.”

Hansen, meanwhile, played so well, despite an injured wrist, that he can afford to concentrate more on the title than making his debut at Valhalla. “It's all good,” he said. “Johnnie Walker instead of all that Ryder Cup.”

Rose, too, has a weight off his mind. He resolved before yesterday’s 67 to forget about the cup, given that only a “minor miracle” could deny him anyway. It seemed to do the trick. After a sticky start, when he bogeyed the second, he found his rhythm and set about challenging for the title, which is more than can be said for his playing partner, Colin Montgomerie.

For the big Scot, this is the end of an era. No, really, it is this time. A 76 left him on one over par, without a hope of winning. While Darren Clarke, on one under after a 73, will still have high hopes of a wild card, it is all over for Montgomerie. The man who has been engaged in a transatlantic war of words with Ian Poulter was asked later if he would like to speak to the press. “No thank you,” he said. “You have had plenty out of me already.”

It has been another controversial week at Gleneagles, with Monty and Poulter guilty of handbags, and Lee Westwood slamming the PGA Centenary Course, which will stage the 2014 Ryder Cup. Not that Stephen Gallacher saw anything wrong with the much-criticised greens on his way to a sparkling 65. “They’re the best I’ve ever seen,” he laughed.