THIS SELECTION SYSTEM IS A BUSTED FLUSH

SHANE LOWRY went into the final event of Ryder Cup qualifying clutching the last automatic slot. One of the men hoping to chase him down was Bernd Wiesberger. At the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, Lowry finished 17th and Wiesberger in a tie for 20th. In any sane world, that has to mean Lowry keeps his spot and the fact that Wiesberger overtook him illustrates why the European system — that has admittedly served the continent well over the past two decades — is now a busted flush. There were plenty more insane illustrations. If Lowry had won on Sunday, it would have helped Lee Westwood’s cause enormously to stay in the team and yet if he had finished second to sixth he would have knocked the Englishman out. Enough of this nonsense where we have a Europe points list and a world points list and it needs the projections of a computer to tell us what is going on. It was hardly a coincidence that not one of the players whose fate was up in the air could get their heads round the labyrinthine permutations and play well for 72 holes last week. What a contrast to the black-and-white FedEx Cup in America, where players like Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau and Harris English all delivered over the course of three play-off events and gathered plenty of confidence and belief to take with them to Whistling Straits next week. Let’s hope when Westwood takes over the captaincy in 2023 he will get it all sorted in time for the match in Rome.