Well if you fancy your chances of getting on the Ryder Cup team there’s 24 places up for grabs and here’s all you have to do.
Ryder Cup Team USA
The U.S. Ryder Cup Team is chosen on the basis of points earned on PGA Tour co-sponsored events from August 22nd 2004 until August 20th 2006. The points are compiled by The PGA of America. The top ten players on the points list qualify automatically for the 12-man team (for more details on points allocations check out the PGA website). Chances are if you are going to make this list you’re far too busy playing the pro-tour to be reading this but there’s still a chance. Each team captain gets to select the final two players to complement the team. Maybe it’s time you started petitioning the U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Tom Lehman. Check here to see how you (or your favourite player) is doing for getting on the team.
Ryder Cup Team Europe
With so many of the players on the European Tour “chasing the dollars” on the American circuit the qualification for the European Ryder Cup team is slightly different to that of Team USA.
The European Ryder Cup team is similarly based on points earned through competition however two events are used for selection: The Ryder Cup World Points List and the European Points List.
The Ryder Cup World Points List is comprised of Official World Golf Ranking points won by a European Tour Member from each tournament in which he participates between September 1, 2005 and September 3, 2006.
The second league at which points can be earned is The Ryder Cup European Points List. This list is comprised of points (1 point = 1 euro) earned by a European Tour Member from all officially sanctioned events counting towards The European Tour Order of Merit between September 1, 2005 and September 3, 2006.
The final team will comprise the leading five players from The Ryder Cup World Points list and the top five players from the Ryder Cup European Points List (not already qualified through the Ryder Cup World Points list) as of September 3, 2006.
As with Ryder Cup Team USA two further selections will be made by The European Team Captain, Ian Woosnam. It may be your only chance! (The latest press however has Woosnam warning those who hope to make the team as one of his picks to start competing in events in Europe – listen up Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood!) See the latest Ryder Cup standings for Team Europe.
Addendum: “A points system reconfigured after the Americans’ lopsided loss on their home soil in 2004 zoomed Herron up the list. The PGA of America _ after consulting with Lehman, its newly chosen captain _ revised the system two months after that loss, weighting it to lavishly award PGA Tour winners, particularly those of major championships, during the season that leads into the Ryder Cup. For Herron, that meant 375 valuable Ryder Cup points accompanied his $1,080,000 payday, which surpassed his three previous winner’s checks combined.”
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=GLF-HERRON-05-25-06http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=GLF-HERRON-05-25-06
[…] The latest standings for Ryder Cup points puts a lot of new faces in the running for top ten positions on Team USA. If Team USA was picked on the basis of the current standings it might affect the TV viewer ratings but would it effect the performance of the team? After all this a meritocracy and these players are on form, which is the point that Lehman has been making. The weakness that Woosnam has identified is that this leaves Lehman with four or five players who have never played in Europe before. I suppose the question is whether this is a liability or just an indication of the massive depth of golfing talent in the US, where players have no need to travel to play very lucrative professional golf? […]
[…] Well the long race is over. At the end of US PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club the positions remain unchanged after another unassailable performance by Woods. The 10 automatic qualifying spots on the US Ryder Cup (see here for how this works) are as follows (final points tally is shown in brackets): […]
[…] For more detail on the selection mechanism see our article on qualifying for the Ryder Cup […]