Those of you who like counting down to a big event will be pleased to hear that it is only 500 days until the Ryder Cup swings into action at Gleneagles.

It has been 14,479 days since the transatlantic tussle drew to a close at Muirfield in 1973, the last time the contest was held on Scottish soil. You need a few fingers to work that one out.

In that 40-year period, the scrap for the little gold chalice has grown arms and legs and has become a golfing beast of quite staggering proportions. No-one did more to breathe new life into the whole affair than Tony Jacklin. His foresight and inspiring leadership qualities kickstarted a chain of events and a series of European successes that effectively led to the Ryder Cup becoming the commercial colossus it is today.

A member of the Great Britain & Ireland team six times as a player from 1967 to 1977, and of the first European side in 1979, Jacklin became non-playing captain in 1983 and led his side to a first victory in almost three decades at The Belfry two years later, before overseeing a first victory on US soil in 1987. From the creation of team rooms, to luxury travel and smart-looking uniforms, Jacklin helped transform the European Ryder Cup landscape off the course while the talismanic figure of Seve Ballesteros shaped things on it.

"All the things I introduced were to enable us to stand on the first tee all square instead of two down," recalled the former Open and US Open champion. "We looked upon America to be a big thing, whether it was Hollywood movies or whatever. Seve and myself always took the view that just because you've got more courses, more people, better weather, more money to play for, it doesn't mean to say that today, this day, at matchplay, you will beat us. The Europeans get great team unity out of that."

Involved in that great moment of sportsmanship, when Jack Nicklaus conceded Jacklin's short yet missable putt on the 18th green to ensure the 1969 match at Birkdale finished tied, the Englishman has always hailed the spirit in which the Ryder Cup is played. That feeling endured even when things got slightly boisterous, as they did at Brookline in 1999.

"The key to this whole thing and the reason it's got as big as it has is because it's pure and the players play as gentlemen with great sportsmanship," he added. "They look each other in the eye after every round and win, lose or draw they say 'well played'. The point is, it's not a war, we're all pals. At Brookline, there was no malice intended when they all ran on the green. There was over-exuberance and it takes things like that to happen on occasions to remind us all what a delicate situation we're in."

With 12 of the best players in the game in his team-room, the captain's job is never easy. Multi-millionaire superstars who are used to doing their own thing in this, predominantly, individual pursuit get used to having their every whim pandered to. At last year's Ryder Cup, for instance, Phil Mickelson insisted to his captain, Davis Love III, that he should sit out the Saturday fourballs. That kind of player power would not have washed on Jacklin's watch.

"I leaned very heavily on my major champions and they didn't get much rest," he said. "There was a time when [Bernhard] Langer wanted to be rested one afternoon and I told him 'you're better for me tired than my alternative fresh; you're a great champion'. You could see his chest puff out at that."

So who will be puffing their chests out at Gleneagles? Paul McGinley's Europe or Tom Watson's USA?

"I don't think his [Watson's] influence is going to make any difference," said Jacklin. "I'd be very surprised if Europe didn't win. A home event in Scotland in September when the weather can be . . . well, yucky?"

Time will tell.