Shane Lowry - 2019 Champion Golfer of The Year (note first post please for posting guidance)

I has a look at the points tables and came to a similar conclusion. By my reckoning, Wiesberger needs to finish 49th or better to pass Rory in the European Points list, but a top 24 by Fitzpatrick would move him past Rory too, so it's a question of how high up both of them finish in that scenario. A top 4 for Casey would also move him past Rory.

Of course, it's not just Wiesberger who has a chance of breaking into the automatic qualifying spots, but the bar is set a lot higher for everyone else. Taking a worst case scenario for Shane where he misses the cut and doesn't get any help from Fitzpatrick or Casey, there are quite a number of people who could either pass Rory in the European Points list or pass Shane in the World points list.

The players concerned and the positions they would need to finish are set out below. 3-4 means no worse than a two way tie for 3rd.

European Points list

Victor Perez 3-4

Robert MacIntyre/Guido Migliozzi 2-3

Thomas Detry 2

Richard Bland, Danny Willett, Matthias Schwab, Sergio Garcia, Rasmus Hojgaard, Calum Hill, Ian Poulter 1

World Points list

Sergio Garcia 4-5

Victor Perez 3-4

Robert MacIntyre 3

Ian Poulter 2-3

Guido Migliozzi 2

Justin Rose, Alex Noren, Thomas Detry, Danny Willett, Calum Hill, Richard Bland, Rasmus Hojgaard, Henrik Stenson, Matthias Schwab 1

It's not just Shane's place among the automatic qualifiers that is under threat. Lee Westwood is also quite vulnerable if he misses the cut. If that were to happen, Shane would pass him in the World Points list if he finishes no worse than a two way tie for 8th. That, combined with a decent finish by Wiesberger, would leave Westwood relying on a wild card pick.

It's also possible that other players above Lee and Shane in the current rankings could fall out of the automatic qualifying places, but this would require a very unusual combination of results.

Wiesberger finished at -1.

Shane going along alright but like nearly every week this year he is making very amateurish mistakes which cost him big at the end of every tournament.

He made mess of the par 3 fifth for bogey to go back to -1. Needs to cut out those bad errors.

Of course they make bogeys but what he's doing is making very basic errors. It's been happening all year. He has to get it sorted out, he should have it rectified by now.

On another point I've heard the Sky guys comment on Shane needing a top 8. What are the numbers on this? He's way behind on the European points list and would need to pass Westwood out on the world list so a top 8 in isolation (without Wiesberger and Westwood missing the cut or finishing way down the field) surely isn't enough.

I read something earlier that if Rose wins it outright he will get in automatically? How is that possible? How many points are up for grabs for the winner?

Do you know how many points is on offer for the winner of this? It must be a lot...

But it doesn't work as an incentive. Only 1 or 2 players that are not regular (primarily pga tour) players in the mix.

The Ryder Cup is either a competition you want to win by putting your best team out or it's a stick to force people, who probably would have played the events anyway, to play. Can't be both.

But if the event didn’t have the points/money on offer the field would be even weaker.

Honestly, people can’t complain about what’s on offer from the event because in a situation of the stakes being lower the field would be worse

Yeh we definitely won’t agree on it. It completely makes sense in my eyes for a focus on qualification to be based on the home tour

So the only reason people play on the European tour is due to a biennial qualification for the ryder cup? How do you explain the attendance at the non ryder cup years?

the problem for the European Tour is its now primarily a feeder tour for the PGA tour ,looking at the likely team they all play the PGA TOUR as their first preference and the biggest stars like Rahm ,Rory .Hatton and Fleetwood qualify on the European list while mainly playing in the states .Probably the way to get the best players in form would be to pick the top 8/9 Europeans on the Fedex list first for this year and then 3 picks,although Politically it might be hard to justify .I dont think Ryder cup qualification strengthens many European fields through the year.Playing tournaments in your home country seems to be a bigger draw.(and appearance money of course)

A -6 round today has him well up the board anyway. Fairly confident he'll get a pick if falls out of automatic slots, he's had a very consistent summer

Mcilroy could have made this a whole lot easier by playing. Finish ahead of Wiesberger and Shane stays automatically qualified and then you could pick Garcia, Poulter and Rose. No drama.

Re Poulter,would have felt he was playin reasonably the last few months,noticed him a good bit on leaderboard so probably playing ok which would get him in.Justin was 50 odd places behind Shane on the Fedex list so cant argue on form ,only experience.Think Haro can say he went with mosrtly experience on two of his picks and form on one.