Ryder Cup criteria puts emphasis on majors, recent play

The worst U.S. loss in Ryder Cup history led to a shakeup in the qualification process, a change geared toward making sure the Americans are on top of their game when the 2006 matches are played in Ireland.

The PGA of America revamped its criteria Thursday by putting even more emphasis on major championships, giving an extra 75 points for PGA Tour victories and quadrupling points for top-10 finishes in Ryder Cup years.

"The goal was to make sure that in a Ryder Cup year the performance of the players is rewarded," PGA president Roger Warren said. "The new system rewards the game's hottest players."

Some felt that was lacking this year at Oakland Hills.

Only five of the 12 players on the U.S. team had won in 2004. One player who didn't make the team but certainly would have if the new system had been in effect was Todd Hamilton, who won the Honda Classic last spring and then won the British Open in a playoff with Ernie Els.

What prompted the change was the Americans' worst loss in the 77-year history of the Ryder Cup - 18½-9½ - which gave Europe the cup for the seventh time in the last 10 meetings.

But even Warren said a new points system might not be enough to stop European dominance.

"You do the best you can to get the best players," he said. "They have to play better than the other team. We wouldn't be looking at the process if we had been more successful."

It was the biggest change to the points system since 1993, when majors were given extra credit and points were weighted toward the current year.

Now the points are weighted so significantly that someone would have to have a phenomenal season in 2005 to lock up a spot on the '06 team.

PGA Tour victories the last two months of 2004 and all of 2005 will be worth 75 points, with points gradually decreasing to 5 for 10th place. That's how it was under the old system.

But in 2006, points will be worth four times as much, with an extra 75 points for the winner. That means 375 points for first place, down to 20 points for 10th. Previously, a tour victory in a Ryder Cup year earned 150 points.

A major victory will be worth 450 points, up from 225, in 2005 and will increase to 675, up from 300, in 2006.

Chris Riley earned the last spot on the Ryder Cup team this year with 576.786 points. Hamilton would have had 1,050 points just from his Honda and British Open victories. John Daly would have had more than 700 points from his Buick Invitational victory and four other Top 10s.

"I think it's a step in the right direction," said Scott Verplank, who finished out of the top 10 last year and failed to make the Ryder Cup team. "It rewards a guy playing well at that time."

Left intact were two criteria that some players wanted to see changed.

The PGA treated every tour event that isn't a major the same. That means points earned at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic or the B.C. Open - among the weakest fields on tour - are equal to The Players Championship, regarded as the fifth major with the strongest and deepest field in the world.

Fred Funk was criticized by fans and some players for ducking the British Open to play the same week at the B.C. Open, figuring he had a better chance to earn Ryder Cup points.

The PGA also stuck with its system of awarding points only to the top 10, even though one stroke can be the difference between sixth place and 11th place, and the PGA Tour has more international players than ever.

"I'm assuming the points system has been similar for a number of years," Verplank said. "But the tour is not at all similar to what it was a number of years ago. Top 10 is fine, but on a regular basis we have anywhere from three to six non-Americans finishing in the top 10.

"It just seems if you're the fifth-best American that week, you ought to get some credit."

Warren said the PGA looked at both cases, but decided to stick with giving points only to those in the top 10.

"Even with the increased performance of foreign players, we wanted to reward the top performances," he said. "And we valued majors and winning. That's where we wanted the focus - not ranking or evaluating other tour events."

Points will be earned through the 2006 PGA Championship. The top 10 players make the team, and U.S. captain Tom Lehman will pick two other players.

Europe changed its selection process before the '04 Ryder Cup.

Recognizing that more of its top players were competing around the world, it decided to take five top players from a list of world ranking points, five from the European tour money list and two captain's picks.

But its standings do not begin until one year before the Ryder Cup, and many believe that has allowed Europe to have a team at the peak of its game.

Warren believes making the points quadruple in a Ryder Cup year, with even more weight on the majors in both years, will do the same for the Americans.

"We're comfortable with where we are," Warren said. "But we'll continue to evaluate it. This isn't a final decision, but it's a decision for the 2006 Ryder Cup."