The new Ryder Cup qualification process announced is a masterstroke by the European Tour. Not only will it make the team stronger for the biennial tournament, it will also make the European Tour stronger by cleverly exploiting the biggest tournament in world golf.
It is also a statement of intent – a clear message has been sent, and rightly, that players hoping to represent Europe in the Ryder Cup have to be European Tour members.
The minimum number of standalone European Tour events – not counting the four majors and the four World Golf Championships – that a player now needs to play to retain his membership has been brought down to four from the earlier five.
This clarifies the situation, once and for all, surrounding someone like Paul Casey. The Englishman was playing really well at the time of going to Hazeltine last year, and many felt, including Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood, that he should have been a part of the team regardless of his membership status.
But, European Tour chief executive Kieth Pelley said every player, including McIlroy and Westwood, agree that anyone with the ambition of playing Ryder Cup, should be able to make time to play four European Tour sanctioned tournaments.
It was also decided that any player who gives up his European Tour membership will not be eligible to become a captain or vice-captain in the future. Given how important playing in Ryder Cup is to every European golfer, this will surely stop the talent drain from the Tour to the PGA Tour.
Changes have been made to the Ryder Cup qualification process. ⬇️️https://t.co/b44K52QgGk pic.twitter.com/15KbM9aOu2
— Ryder Cup Team EUR (@RyderCupEurope) January 18, 2017
Among the many changes made, captain Thomas Bjorn will now have four wildcard picks and there will be more weightage for events closer to the Ryder Cup. That will insure there are more in-form players in the team when they take on the Americans in Paris in September next year.
More interestingly, there will be no points available for events that are being played simultaneously during the Rolex Series events.
The Rolex Series – eight tournaments with prize money of $7 million or more – has become the most important part of the European Tour schedule. And while millions of dollars can be spent to promote these events, there is nothing better to excite the fans than the presence of some of the big names.
It is unlikely that all the top stars will flock to all these events, but a fine start has been made. The more you play Rolex Series tournaments, the better your chances to qualify for the Ryder Cup.
The graded points system is also a good move. Bjorn made it a point to make an example of himself in explaining why players like Russell Knox and Alex Noren should have made it to Darren Clarke’s team last year.
Europe Ryder Cup Captain, Thomas Bjorn, meets the media in Abu Dhabi.
In 2013, Bjorn made a great start to his season and qualified for the team at Gleneagles because he accrued so many points early. But when the tournament was played, he was nowhere near his best.
If a similar system were followed last year, both Knox and Noren would have probably made it to the team.
The fourth wildcard will increase the burden of responsibility on Bjorn, but captain’s picks remain the best way to find the right balance in the team.
The European Tour earns millions from the Ryder Cup, but have often been criticized that they haven’t really ‘exploited’ their success to benefit the Tour. Of course, part of those millions has gone to beef up the prize purse of struggling events in the past, but this clearly is a better way of making it work for the Tour.
