One big change is coming to the 2016 Ryder Cup selection process
Expect the PGA of America to make a number of changes to their entire approach toward the Ryder Cup.
What those changes will be and how sweeping we’ll consider them remains to be seen, but PGA of America president Ted Bishop said Tuesday they will not be made in hasty reaction to the third-straight American loss and the ensuing vocal displeasure of Phil Mickelson about Tom Watson’s captaincy.
However, one change, at least for 2016, is all but a certainty. The ’16 PGA Championship will be played the last week of July to accommodate golf’s return to the Olympic program later that summer. Traditionally, the season’s final major is the cutoff to determine the players that automatically qualify for the American Ryder Cup team. With the change in date, a different event is likely to assume that important spot.
“There is no way, in my opinion, you can announce the automatic qualifiers two months before the Ryder Cup,” said Bishop.
That means it’s likely the 2016 FedEx Cup playoffs will take on even more importance, with one event the last to determine which players qualify on points and another the final event to get into the conversation for the to-be-determined captain’s wild-card picks.
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
