Changes To European Tour Membership, Ryder Cup Qualifications in Europe

JCW555 · January 18, 2017

http://www.europeant...medium=referral

In summary, the decisions taken by the European Tour Tournament Committee are:

European Tour Membership:

● Membership criteria of the European Tour to be dropped from five tournaments to four tournaments (outside the Majors and WGCs) for the 2018 season.

Qualification for The 2018 Ryder Cup Team:

● Ryder Cup qualification points (both R2D Points and World Points) to be multiplied by 1.5 for tournaments later in the qualification process. The starting point for this will be the BMW PGA Championship in 2018.

● No Ryder Cup qualification points will be available from tournaments staged anywhere in the world opposite Rolex Series tournaments in both 2017 and 2018.

● Qualification for the 2018 team to change to four players from the Ryder Cup European Points List, four from the Ryder Cup World Points List and four Wild Card picks for Captain Bjørn.

Ryder Cup Qualification – General:

● Players must be a member of the European Tour to be eligible to play for Europe.

● Players cannot be a European Ryder Cup Captain or a Vice-Captain if they decline membership of the European Tour or fail to fulfil their minimum event obligation in any season, from 2018 onwards.

Read more at http://www.europeant...COsMxyieI66c.99

MattyO1984 · January 18, 2017

Glad that they have made some changes, it was inevitable that they were after such a resounding defeat last year and in light of the comments which were made by the players, most notably Rory McIlroy.

The reduction in the requirement going hand in hand with the no points for events opposite the Rolex Series is a good move. Given how much money is being pumped into these events, the European Tour is clearly hoping that those events alone will attract the bigger names and when you add the no points to events opposite that should be enough to get guys along who are interested in playing in the Ryder Cup. They are of course at risk of creating two tiers of a tour with the Rolex events attracting all the attention and the remainder being a level below but arguably the PGA Tour already does that with the FedEx Cup.

As an aside, I am not sure that it will convince Paul Casey to come along and play European Tour events but he has his own beef with the tour and the Ryder Cup so I think he is a special case.

The point about people being unable to be captains or vice captains if they have ever decline membership or fail to fulfill their event obligation is interesting. That will only affect a select number of players. I do wonder though how it will work if medical issues come in to create problems. Most will remember McIlroy being excused from playing the minimum number of events in 2015 even though he had been back fit and playing and could have if he had really wanted to played in another ET event to get to his minimum. Pelley and the Board have shown that they are not beyond favouritism in the past which makes me think that they will be exactly the same in the future and that could create some interesting situations in the years going forward if anyone doesn't play the minimum number of events.

Dave230 · January 18, 2017

The point about people being unable to be captains or vice captains if they have ever decline membership or fail to fulfill their event obligation is interesting. That will only affect a select number of players. I do wonder though how it will work if medical issues come in to create problems. Most will remember McIlroy being excused from playing the minimum number of events in 2015 even though he had been back fit and playing and could have if he had really wanted to played in another ET event to get to his minimum. Pelley and the Board have shown that they are not beyond favouritism in the past which makes me think that they will be exactly the same in the future and that could create some interesting situations in the years going forward if anyone doesn't play the minimum number of events.

Rory is possibly missing two European Tour events now through rib injury, which means he would have to play four more non WGC/major events this season. Irish Open, BMW Championship and DP World are guaranteed, but now he might have to fit another one in there somewhere that he hadn't planned. Next season, he would make the limit pretty comfortably

MattyO1984 · January 18, 2017

Rory is possibly missing two European Tour events now through rib injury, which means he would have to play four more non WGC/major events this season. Irish Open, BMW Championship and DP World are guaranteed, but now he might have to fit another one in there somewhere that he hadn't planned. Next season, he would make the limit pretty comfortably

Hopefully the prospect of more cash with the Rolex events might have tempted him to a slight change in his schedule in any event...wishful thinking perhaps?

imakaveli · January 18, 2017

Just don't pick Westwood in the next Ryder Cup and we will be fine

nichho · January 19, 2017

Just a few of points.

A quick look shows that there are no PGA Tour co-sanctioned tournaments opposite any Rolex Series events and the events that are opposite them are not necessarily must play events (for Europeans). Therefore there appears to be little in the way of distractions to stop top European golfer from playing the Rolex Series. Say that.....

With Ryder Cup points not starting until the end of August, Pelley seems to be giving them a free ride this year. Play where you like this summer but after August!! Saying that.......

1 point =1.5 from May 2018. A lot of players should be making plans for their schedule based on that date.

I wonder how long before Paul Casey gets a camera and microphone shoved in front of his face and is ask for his views on all of this.

MattyO1984 · January 19, 2017

Just a few of points.

A quick look shows that there are no PGA Tour co-sanctioned tournaments opposite any Rolex Series events and the events that are opposite them are not necessarily must play events (for Europeans). Therefore there appears to be little in the way of distractions to stop top European golfer from playing the Rolex Series. Say that.....

With Ryder Cup points not starting until the end of August, Pelley seems to be giving them a free ride this year. Play where you like this summer but after August!! Saying that.......

1 point =1.5 from May 2018. A lot of players should be making plans for their schedule based on that date.

I wonder how long before Paul Casey gets a camera and microphone shoved in front of his face and is ask for his views on all of this.

Casey is the interesting one. Should he have been at the last Ryder Cup? Yes. Did he want to be at the Ryder Cup? Didn't look like. With that being said, I'm not sure that any of these changes would be enough to tempt Casey into playing. I can understand that because he was screwed over by Monty in 2010 and his life is America. I think he played The Open last year in the UK and Europe last year and that was it. No effort to play any golf even in England let alone any other European Tour event I think tells you all that you need to know.

nichho · January 19, 2017

The thing with Casey as I remember it was that following his self inflicted injury he played the PGA Tour on his medical exemption, but not well enough to keep his card. So he came back to the ET on an ancient win exemption, won enough OGWR points to get into sufficient PGA Tour events to garner enough points to get his card back.. And he hasn't been back since.

And like you I suspect he will not be rushing back any time soon, including to get ET membership or gather Ryder Cup points.