Luke Donald Reveals Major Change to Ryder Cup Qualifying

Team Europe’s Ryder Cup captain, Luke Donald, has announced a new qualifying points system for the 2025 event at Bethpage Black.

Previously, there were two separate lists: the World Points List and the European Points List. These lists determined six automatic qualifiers based on different ranking points.

Now, there will be just one streamlined Ryder Cup Points List to make it easier to see who’s in line for Team Europe. Points will be earned through a new tournament banding structure created by Ryder Cup Europe with Luke Donald’s input.

New Point System Breakdown:

Major championships offer 5,000 points in total. PGA Tour Signature Events, The Players, and the 2025 FedEx Cup playoffs give out 3,000 points each. DP World Tour Rolex Series events and regular PGA Tour competitions provide 2,000 points.

“Back Nine” events on the DP World Tour offer up to 1,500 points. Regular DP World Tour tournaments and opposite events on the PGA Tour can hand out 1,000 points each.

Donald expressed his excitement about this new process: “I am delighted to be able to confirm the details of the qualification process for our 2025 Ryder Cup team.”

Fans might think this change makes things more straightforward and fairer.

The qualification starts at the Betfred British Masters from August 29 – September 1, 2024. It ends with an unconfirmed DP World Tour event on August 24, 2025.

However, with only one more regular event before the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs begin, Team Europe noted that players can only earn Ryder Cup points from DP World Tour events until January 1, 2025.

PGA Tour-based golfers can start collecting Ryder Cup points from January 1 until August 17, 2025. To be eligible for Team Europe, players must be European according to IGF National policy and have an active DP World Tour membership.

Guy Kinnings of PGA European Tour said: “This is a major milestone moment in our journey to the 2025 Ryder Cup.”

The next Ryder Cup kicks off at Bethpage Black in New York from September 26-28, 2025. Team Europe currently holds the trophy after their win over Team USA at Marco Simone in a score of “16.5-11.5.”

What do you think about these changes?