Rectification. Let’s get this straight. This Sunday we published an article detailing which players still had chances to qualify for Team Europe in the Ryder Cup and what they would need to do this week to achieve it. We started from incorrect information. We thought that the points from the Tour Championship and the British Masters, tournaments taking place this week, counted, but it turns out that only the British Masters counts, a DP World Tour tournament played from Thursday to Sunday that opens the Back Nine series. The situation, as you can imagine, changes significantly.
Thus, with only the British Masters points at stake, it turns out that there is only one player who still has a mathematical chance of qualifying directly for the Ryder Cup on the European side. That player is Rasmus Hojgaard. The Dane, in fact, doesn’t have to do anything out of this world. He needs to play well, but he doesn’t need an extraordinary result. Specifically, a solo 29th place at the British Masters would be enough for him to surpass Shane Lowry. If he does even better, he could also overtake Tyrrell Hatton and finish the qualification period in fifth position.
In any case, what is now definitive with the Tour Championship not counting is that Hatton has qualified directly for the Ryder Cup, no matter what happens at the British Masters, and that Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, and Viktor Hovland are out. In practical terms, nothing significant really happens, as those three players, including Shane Lowry if he is eventually surpassed by Rasmus Hojgaard, will be chosen by Luke Donald to be at Bethpage.
Thus, there are five players who are already mathematically qualified for the Ryder on the European side: McIlroy, MacIntyre, Fleetwood, Rose, and Hatton. The sixth spot will be between Lowry and Rasmus Hojgaard depending on what happens at the British Masters. Then, there will be Luke Donald’s six picks, which he will announce the week of 1st September. Barring a major surprise, five are decided: Lowry or Rasmus, Rahm, Aberg, Hovland, and Straka. Therefore, one more invitation remains to be awarded. The main candidates to receive it are Marco Penge, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Harry Hall, Nicolai Hojgaard, and Kristoffer Reitan. That final choice will largely depend on what happens this week at the British Masters and the Tour Championship, as well as what happens next week at the Omega European Masters of the DP World Tour, the last tournament before Donald’s selections.
