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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Michael Scully

Record six wildcard picks for Europe as Ryder Cup skipper Luke Donald rings the changes

Luke Donald will have six wildcard picks for the 2023 Ryder Cup team that takes on the United States in Rome.

Donald, who replaced LIV rebel Henrik Stenson as Europe's captain on August 1, has made several changes to the qualification process.

The biggest is that only six players will gain automatic qualification for the event at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club between September 8-11 2023.

READ MORE: Rory McIlroy ready to party but says prospect of LIV golfers at Wentworth is 'hard to stomach'

Three will come from the European Points list and three from the World Points list.

For the last Ryder Cup, won by the US in Whistling Straits, Rory McIlroy was an automatic qualifier while Shane Lowry made his debut in the competition as one of the captain's picks made by Padraig Harrington.

Steve Stricker made a record six captain's picks to his US team for that event as the home side romped to victory and his successor, Zach Johnson, is maintaining the policy.

With a number of experienced top Europeans now plying their trade on the LIV golf tour, including Europe's all-time record points earner Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, Donald wanted more leeway in terms of selection and the six captain's picks will provide that flexibility.

Qualification will begin at the BMW PGA Championship, the fourth Rolex Series event of the current season, which takes place at Wentworth next week and which will feature newly crowned FedEx Cup winner McIlroy and Lowry.

It will conclude on September 3, 2023, three weeks ahead of the Ryder Cup week, when the six players who qualify automatically will be confirmed.

These six automatic qualifiers will comprise the three leading players on the European Points List followed by the three leading players on the World Points List.

Another change agreed by Donald and his vice captains Thomas Bjørn, Edoardo Molinari and the DP World Tour Tournament Committee, sees a modification in the points allocation for the European Points List.

In previous years, the ratio between the highest and lowest ranked events on the DP World Tour exhibited a factor of 6:1 (12,000 points v 2,000 points).

Under the new system, this is reduced to a factor of 4:1 (6,000 points v 1,500 points).

The Horizon Irish Open, which is not a Rolex Series event but was worth $6m in prize money this year, will be worth 3,500 points so may attract a higher quality field to the K Club next summer.

Once more, no points will be available from any tournament played anywhere in the world scheduled against a Rolex Series event on the DP World Tour.

Donald said: “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% behind them.

“The revised overall process removes the need for points multipliers in the last few months of the qualifying period, and 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.

“As far as the European Points List is concerned, modifying the points allocation will give an improved chance for DP World Tour members playing predominantly on the DP World Tour to make the Ryder Cup team through one of the now three spots available from that list.

“We have also moved the end of the qualification period forward to give the players the right amount of preparation time once they have made the team.

“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 today.

"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.”

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