Ryder Cup: Early Frontrunners for Team Europe

Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Who will get to represent Team Europe as it tries to win its seventh Ryder Cup of the new millennium?

With our examination of Team USA complete, let’s now turn our attention to the other side of the pond. The 2016 Ryder Cup is still more than nine months away, but we’re already several events into the qualification process. As such, this brief lull in the schedule is the perfect time to check in and see how Team Europe’s roster is shaping up.

The team selection process for Team Europe is more complicated than that of Team USA. While the Americans need only to finish in the top eight in Ryder Cup points, the Europeans actually employ two points lists: the European Points List and the World Points List. The former corresponds to the amount of money the players have earned via European Tour events; the top four qualify. The latter corresponds to the amount of Official World Golf Ranking points the players have amassed over the same period; the top five qualify. Captain Darren Clarke will round out the roster with his three captain’s picks.

The European Tour implemented this system in order to reward its stay-at-home stars and globetrotting members in relatively equal measure. So far, it’s worked well. The 2014 roster featured Euro Tour-exclusives like Victor Dubuisson and Thomas Bjorn as well as players like Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell, who are better traveled.

Of course, there’s still a lot of golf yet to come before the rosters are finalized, so there will be a lot of shakeups in the standings. In fact, the only guarantee I can make about this list is that it will differ from Team Europe’s final list of automatic qualifiers.

Still, it doesn’t hurt to get a sense of who our frontrunners are, so without further ado, let’s go nine deep. If the qualifying period ended today, here are the players who would represent Team Europe at Hazeltine National.

Next: Rory McIlroy