Just two Ryder Cup picks for Olazábal

José Maria Olazábal, the 2012 European Ryder Cup Captain. ©Getty ImagesPadraig Harrington, Justin Rose and Luke Donald probably wish it had happened five months ago.

European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazábal got his wish and has just two wildcards for the matches at Medinah next year.

But the other changes  made to the qualifying process see the top five players from the European Points List earning their places in the team head of the top five from the World Points List (one more than in 2010 when only the top 4 players from the world rankings qualified.)

That means that had the European Points List counted ahead of the World Points list for the 2010 matches, eventual wildcards Harrington, Donald and Edoardo Molinairi would have qualified automatically through the World Points List alongside Justin Rose, who failed to earn one of Colin Montgomerie’s three picks.

But Ross Fisher, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Peter Hanson would have failed to make the team from the European Points List.

The 10 automatic qualifiers for the European team would have been:

European List: Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter
World Points: Edoardo Molinari, Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, Justin Rose and Francesco Molinari.

Montgomerie left out world No 5 Paul Casey. But under the new rules, the Scot would have been forced to choose two from the likes of Casey, Fisher, Jimenez, Hanson, Rhys Davies, Robert Karlsson, Ross McGowan, Simon Dyson, Alvaro Quiros, Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson.

Olazábal said: “I am very pleased that the Tournament Committee has agreed to my request. The only reason that I asked for a change in the criteria is because I believe that it will give me the strongest team possible to defend The Ryder Cup.

“I looked over the last few qualification processes, going back to 2004, and was satisfied that my proposal would give me the strongest team on paper. We are going to have a very strong team but I just felt that this would give the team the best chance to keep The Ryder Cup and that is what we all want.

“At the end of the day, it is the players who are the stars and it is the players who hit the shots and win the points to win The Ryder Cup.  I would like to thank the committee for their support and I hope that this is the first step to us retaining The Ryder Cup in 2012.”

Qualification for The 2012 European Ryder Cup Team will be selected employing the following criteria:-

(a) The leading five players on The Ryder Cup European Points List (1) at the conclusion of the 2012 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. In the event of a tie (equal number of points accumulated), placings will be decided by the player with the higher ranking on The 2012 Race to Dubai at the conclusion of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

(b) The leading five players, not otherwise qualified (having selected the five players from The Ryder Cup European Points List) from The Ryder Cup World Points List (2) at the conclusion of the 2012 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.  In the event of a tie (equal number of points accumulated), placings will be decided by the player with the higher ranking on the Official World Golf Ranking.

(c) The Captain, José Maria Olazábal, will choose the remaining two players following the conclusion of the 2012 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

(1) The Ryder Cup European Points List will comprise points (1 point = 1 Euro) earned by a European Tour Member from all officially sanctioned European Tour tournaments on The European Tour Race to Dubai from September 1, 2011 until the conclusion of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in 2012.

(2) The Ryder Cup World Points List will comprise World Ranking Points won by a European Tour Member from each tournament in which he participates from September 1, 2011 until the conclusion of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in 2012. World Ranking Points are allocated to all officially sanctioned tournaments (on any Federated Tour) by the Official World Golf Ranking and are allocated according to the Event Rating of the tournament.