Ryder Cup qualifying in need of a shake-up
ARADICAL overhaul of the qualifying system for Europe’s Ryder Cup team is on the cards as those in power consider the appropriate response to the heavy defeat at Hazeltine a fortnight ago.
Alex Noren’s victory at the British Masters on Sunday will only have concentrated minds that change is needed. If the qualifying system hadn’t ended a month before the Ryder Cup, Noren’s victory in the first week of September in Switzerland — following on from his Scottish Open success in July — would have identified him as a player worthy of a place in the team.
I can reveal Paul McGinley, captain at Gleneagles in 2014, had strong reservations about the system’s usefulness during his time in charge. Europe got away with that one, but, talking to influential voices at The Grove last week, it is clear there is now an appetite for modernisation in line with the progressive changes made to the American system.
The biggest problem is the trio of megabucks events that form the Final Series and close out the Race to Dubai each November. Because they offer so much money and thereby qualifying points, any player doing well in those tournaments is almost guaranteed a Ryder Cup spot for a match that doesn’t take place for ten months. How does that make sense?
What Hazeltine and Gleneagles demonstrated is that the players you want in the team are those in form, regardless of whether they’re rookies or have experience. Plainly, Europe’s convoluted qualifying system, spread over a full year, no longer identifies such players.
By contrast, the American system is heavily weighted towards current form. Two of their wild cards were also named later than Europe’s, so there was no chance of an equivalent to Noren slipping through the net.
By 2018 and the next match in Paris, the European Tour schedule will have ten or so events under the umbrella of a Premier Series, all offering at least £6million in prize money. How about those events taking place before the Ryder Cup forming a new qualifying process together with the four majors and three World Golf Championship tournaments?
That’s just one of a number of proposals to be considered as the fallout from Minneapolis continues. ‘People keep telling me it’s good for the Ryder Cup that we lost, but I disagree,’ one powerbroker told me last week. ‘I thought the Americans were there for the taking on that Saturday afternoon. It hurts.’
There’s so much to discuss about the qualifying system that the announcement of the captain — who will have an integral role in what changes are made — will likely be brought forward from the usual slot in late January to before Christmas.
The selectors are the last three captains (Darren Clarke, McGinley and Jose Maria Olazabal) plus European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley. Barring last-minute changes, expect them to appoint Thomas Bjorn. If anyone knows the time is right for change, it’s the Dane.
Bjorn benefited from the failings of the current system when he made the team at Gleneagles. He won the first qualifying event and the Nedbank Challenge at the back end of 2013 — and then recorded only one top-three finish over the following ten months. He then struggled in Scotland at the Ryder Cup itself, contributing a half-point.
Yes, it’s true the Americans putted far better than the Europeans at Hazeltine and that’s why they won. But it’s also true that players bang in form invariably do.