Luke Donald has been handed more power than any other previous Europe Ryder Cup captain by being granted six wildcards for next year’s match in Rome.
Yet as much as this change is to ensure the Englishman can field the strongest line-up, it has also been made to render it even harder for any Saudi league rebel to qualify.
Because of the turmoil caused by the LIV Golf Series, with Donald replacing Henrik Stenson last month after the Swede broke his contract to join the breakaway circuit in a £40 million switch, this is the latest Ryder Cup Europe has ever released the details of its qualification process.
It starts at next week’s BMW PGA Championship and with 18 LIV players teeing it up at Wentworth, the flagship event will be an apt tournament to begin a race that the DP World Tour is determined will not feature any renegades vying for a place at the Marco Simone Country Club on Sept 29-Oct 1, 2023.
While Padraig Harrington only had – and bafflingly only requested – three captain’s picks for the humiliating defeat in Wisconsin a year ago, Donald and vice-captains Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari will decide on half of the dozen whose mission will be to stop Team USA winning on European soil for the first time in 30 years.
It brings the blue and gold brigade in line with their opponents, with their captain Zach Johnson also having six selections after the US retained the system brought in by Steve Stricker during the pandemic two years ago. However, in Europe this was considered to favor the top players too much. Until now.
It is almost impossible to envisage anyone but members of the world’s top 30 being in the top three on the world points list when qualification concludes three weeks before the biennial dust-up. At 33rd, Paul Casey is the highest-ranked European on the LIV roster, but like all his colleagues on the books of the PIF-funded series, he faces seeing his ranking dramatically tumble because of his inability to play on the PGA Tour, after the US circuit banned all LIV recruits.
While a case winds its way through the courts on this side of the pond, the rebels remain free to appear on the DP World Tour – formerly the European Tour. Despite an overhaul of the European points list being weighted towards golfers who play predominantly on the home circuit it still verges on the unlikely side of implausible for a LIV player to have scope to satisfy their commitment to the rebel series at the same time as amassing enough points to crack that particular top three.
One route would be to win a major, but as it stands, only Sergio Garcia (Masters), Stenson (Open) and Martin Kaymer (US PGA and US Open) are eligible among the LIV Europeans for any of next year’s majors.
Donald might come under pressure near the time to call up an in-form LIV player, but because of the overwhelming sentiment in the corridors of power and the locker room it is highly unlikely the Englishman would cave in.
The divide has opened to such an extent that Rory McIlroy, a close friend of Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter, said on Sunday: “It’s going to be hard for me to stomach going to Wentworth and seeing 18 of them there.”
Donald said, via a statement: “These changes to the qualification process for Team Europe follow in-depth analysis with the team at Ryder Cup Europe and with Thomas and Edoardo. I’m delighted that when we presented our thoughts to the Tournament Committee, they were 100 per cent behind them.
“The six picks give me flexibility to ensure we have the strongest line-up at Marco Simone in terms of in-form players, players with Ryder Cup experience, and potential pairings.”
Lee Westwood is one of the rebels playing at the West Course and the veteran – who with 11 matches under his belt shares the European record with Sir Nick Faldo – will no doubt see the irony in one of his suggestions being acted upon.
When the former world No 1 was considering throwing his hat into the captaincy, he insisted that the same mistake should not be made again when it comes to the final qualifying event.
Harrington ignored misgivings about Wentworth being the stage for the qualification finishing line, just seven days before the team flew out to Whistling Straits. “Players don’t need this week, two weeks before the Ryder Cup,” Westwood said, referring to the “draining” effects of the intense battle. Donald agrees with his former teammate.
“We have moved the end of the qualification period forward to give the players the right amount of preparation time once they have made the team,” Donald said.
“A lot of work has already happened behind the scenes, but in many ways the start of the qualification campaign represents the true beginning of the Ryder Cup journey, so I am delighted to confirm these details. We are all focused on reclaiming the Ryder Cup in Rome next September and this qualification system gives us the best opportunity of doing just that.”