Courtesy: Tom Hanson/AP

The pundits are already offering their analysis after day one of the President's Cup at Royal Montreal in Quebec, Canada.

The Americans took a five point lead over the International team in the alternate shot matches yesterday.

As inevitably as snow in Alaska in January, the analysis centers on the Americans' domination of the biennial event. It's worth reminding ourselves that the President's Cup competition has only been in existence since 1994, a total of 13 years. This is just the seventh iteration of it.

But the American side has won four times and there has been one tie. Once the "domination factor" has been repeatedly unearthed by the experts, next comes the question of why American golfers can't dominate equally in the Ryder Cup?

WorldGolf.com writer, Brandon Tucker, offers an explanation which may hold some merit.

He reports that PGA golfer, Charlie Huffman believes it all has to do with camaraderie (see my post yesterday ). Huffman claims the Europeans bond under a common banner while the Internationals hail from all corners of the world and there's no rallying point for them.

Quite possibly. After all, European golfers have a lot in common despite coming from different countries on the continent. There's the European Common Market, the euro currency, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, the European Union and, above all else, open borders with no need for passports.

But Sergio is from Spain, Padraig is Irish, Monty is Scottish even though he lives in England, etc. Different countries mean different cultural backgrounds and football rivalries (never underestimate that in European affairs!). So, how can the Europeans form camaraderie according to Huffman when the Internationals can't?

I believe it has more to do with format. Plainly and simply, European golfers play and have played many more stroke-play tournaments than Americans or non-European golfers. Stroke play is the format of choice in junior tournaments, club tournaments, amateur cups - and there are plenty of those in each European nation - the esteemed Walker Cup, the 70 year old Ryder Cup and so forth.

There's plenty of stroke play in American amateur golf, too but when an American golfer turns pro, stroke-play is largely forgotten.

It's familiarity with the format that allows a sense of "team" to be created. Not that Europeans are necessarily more empathetic towards each other.

Huffman went on to tell Brandon Tucker that he thinks that's what the FedEx Cup was all about. "...to get us around each other more. To get some of that camaraderie that's on the European Tour."

Sorry, Charlie, the FedEx Cup was about one thing only. Money. And you can't get farther from camaraderie than a field of golfers competing for a 10 million dollar annuity.

To paraphrase Tiger on the eve of this President's Cup: "We go out there every week and try to bash each other over the head, so this format [President's Cup] is fun."

Could that be the secret? Having fun? What a concept!