Why don't Europe have 4 wild cards?

The theory is that it rewards good play by having more qualifiers.
The USA can pick 4 players currently playing well so it may give them an advantage.
I think that the qualification process should be broadly similar - that is "x" number of qualifiers and "y" number of picks.
Nothing to stop the next Captain/Committee changing the rules and having 12 picks...
 
You have people like Hanson qualifying through being good on European courses but then being completely unsuited to a US Ryder Cup track. We need to have more picks in future but going by Olly's decision making so far, he'd probably have picked Nick Dougherty and Olly Wilson.
 
Ollie would make the putts his players are missing!
 
Monty campaigned and got it increased to 3 captains picks.

Jose Maria decided he didn't want three and said he was happy to pick two with 10 automatic qualifiers.
 
Then wasted it by picking Harrington anyway! :D

Yip you could argue that. I guess Monty saw Paddy in the same way that Jose sees Lee. An experienced head that he hoped would add experience and calm to the team.
 
Apart from Kaymer would the team look much different if we used 4 picks?

Would the US team be any different if they only used 2?

Don't think so.

US have simply been better so far.
 
Agree that US have simply played extremely well and any make-up of the European team would probably have the same result. However, that said I also agree that 8 qualifiers + 4 captain's picks makes more sense but might be resisted by the captain as it puts more pressure on him!
 
Seems we slightly shoot ourselves in the foot with top 10 plus 2....

Discuss :fore:

wrong question really

the real question would be why we retain the priority to the top 5 on the European Tour over just the top 10 in the world (with a focus on Majors if deemed appropriate etc) - ie why don't we set out to play our best eligible players regardless of where they play their golf?

the answer lies with (appropriately) vested interests - so that's why we have the team we have.
 
wrong question really

the real question would be why we retain the priority to the top 5 on the European Tour over just the top 10 in the world (with a focus on Majors if deemed appropriate etc) - ie why don't we set out to play our best eligible players regardless of where they play their golf?

the answer lies with (appropriately) vested interests - so that's why we have the team we have.

This is exactly the issue. The logical way to select the team would be to simply count OWGR points from the start of the qualifying period on one list, and as these points erode with time, it automatically takes care of the problem of people qualifying based on distant form.

But that would allow the players to accrue points anywhere, and there are more OWGR points available in the US most weeks, so the European Tour list is a blatant attempt to target those players who are just a notch below the top OWGR players (who will still be in the OWGR top 10 in a years time) and gives a crutch to the European Tour and gives these second tier players a chance to qualify. There is some tension in this system and some problems. For example, a player who finished one place outside of qualification in both, but still be an evidently better player than the guy who squeezed into the last European Tour place, but may not qualify.
 
westwood and kaymer have qualified from the OWGR.....

They're all good players. But none of the rankings methods reflects current form (ie the last month or so) which seems to be the key factor in putting in a performance in this event.
 
How would it work if, say, Keegan.B decided to just play on the European Tour for the next 2 years, wins a few events but no Majors or WGCs so doesn't pick up qualification points. In a straight fight between him and 2 guys who have played on the PGA Tour all the time, he's not going to get picked because he's not a member of the Tour.Europe already has a way in for those who ply their trade over there - qualification from the World points list. USA don't do that.It's not Europe vs USA it's the European Tour + a couple who play in the States vs the PGA Tour Americans.
 
It's all pretty academic, I think. It's not obvious how different the team would be even with 12 picks. The only European in the OWGR ranked higher than some of the team and not playing is Carl Petterson. Now he might have been a decent shout if he was eligible but there are certainly no great (on form) Europeans not here.

Maybe you could ignore the rankings and bring in great RC players.... not sure Monty is still up to it though but at least it would get him off the commentary team.... :whistle:
 
Seems we slightly shoot ourselves in the foot with top 10 plus 2....

Discuss :fore:

the other thing to note in this is that the US has really made extremely little 'wild card' choices - despite the options they have basically just tweaked their merit list by leaving out no 9 and 12, replacing with no 13 and 15; hardly 'wild' cards.
 
Don't think more wild cards would make much if any difference.

Also remember the European team represents and is picked by the European Tour, not some notional "European entity". Not surprising therefore (and arguably quite right) that the selection process has an element of bias towards players playing on the European Tour.
 
Does this mean that next time it's in Europe we take out the players that are not so good on windier, wetter & slower greens. Drop Rory, Donald et all. It's just that the Americans are playing better or The Europeans are not playing as well what ever way round you want to put it.

We've only lost it once, probably twice this millennium, still not a bad record.

Shark
 
DL3 was able to pick guys that were all in form in the run up to USPGA and FedEx cup. So it's allowed him to rotate his team through the sessions knowing that the guys are performing well.

Europe may have exhausted Rory, Donald, Rose, Garcia by playing them in nearly each match.... And they are still not at their best and trying to find "it" out there.
 
With all the good guys off to play in the US it needs to be 4 wild cards, should have been this time IMO.

Golf is so much about CURRENT form that 2 picks is ALWAYS a silly idea (just in case).
 
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