Europe’s recently-appointed Ryder Cup captain is to reassesses the selection procedure for the team ahead of the matches in Paris in 2018, in order to ensure that he has the strongest possible group of players at his disposal.
Bjorn, who was a vice-captain when Europe lost to America 17-11 at Hazeltine in October, said that a full-scale review into selection policy and planning is being undertaken by the Ryder Cup committee.
Although no details of any proposed changes to the current selection criteria have been announced, the early signs are that Bjorn does not want a repeat of the situation that denied Darren Clarke the services of Paul Casey at Hazeltine because the Englishman had not taken up his membership of the European Tour. The same situation with Sweden’s Carl Pettersson in the past, another player who lives in the US, but plays almost exclusively on the PGA Tour. And with more and more top European players choosing to play almost exclusively in America, the situation looks only set to continue in the future.
“There’s a lot of nuances into this and they all need to be looked at,” Bjorn said. “Selection will be reviewed, and it should be, because the world and the game of golf is a moving thing. But we’re in no immediate rush. We’ll look at it carefully. We might stay where we are, but we might also come up with a few tweaks. The biggest task at hand is not to get too panicked about not having the trophy on this side of the Atlantic at the moment. There are so many aspects to consider, but I’m just trying to gather all the information to set out a plan.”
“I will go forward with what our players want, and what we’re all about as a team. I also have my own thinking and concerns about what I can bring to it, and will give it my own twist,” said the 45-year-old Dane, who played for Europe in 1997, 2002 and 2014. “We’ve been very successful in the past, and let’s not go away from that. We’ve won eight out of the last 11, it’s not like we have a system that’s faulty, and we always play against a very strong team.”