RYDER CUP After rout by Europeans, U.S. alters points system

The changes are designed to get the hottest players on the American team.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The worst U.S. loss in Ryder Cup history led to a shakeup in the qualification process, a change geared toward making sure the Americans are on top of their game when the 2006 matches are played in Ireland.
The PGA of America revamped its criteria Thursday by putting even more emphasis on major championships, giving an extra 75 points for PGA Tour victories and quadrupling points for top-10 finishes in Ryder Cup years.
"The goal was to make sure that in a Ryder Cup year the performance of the players is rewarded," PGA president Roger Warren said. "The new system rewards the game's hottest players."
Some felt that was lacking this year at Oakland Hills.
Only five of the 12 players on the U.S. team had won in 2004. One player who didn't make the team but certainly would have if the new system had been in effect was Todd Hamilton, who won the Honda Classic last spring and then won the British Open in a playoff with Ernie Els.
Wakeup call
What prompted the change was the Americans' worst loss in the 77-year history of the Ryder Cup -- 181/2-91/2 -- which gave Europe the cup for the seventh time in the last 10 meetings.
But even Warren said a new points system might not be enough to stop European dominance.
"You do the best you can to get the best players," he said. "They have to play better than the other team. We wouldn't be looking at the process if we had been more successful."
It was the biggest change to the points system since 1993, when majors were given extra credit and points were weighted toward the current year.
Now the points are weighted so significantly that someone would have to have a phenomenal season in 2005 to lock up a spot on the '06 team.
PGA Tour victories the last two months of 2004 and all of 2005 will be worth 75 points, with points gradually decreasing to 5 for 10th place. That's how it was under the old system.
Changes
But in 2006, points will be worth four times as much, with an extra 75 points for the winner. That means 375 points for first place, down to 20 points for 10th. Previously, a tour victory in a Ryder Cup year earned 150 points.
A major victory will be worth 450 points, up from 225, in 2005 and will increase to 675, up from 300, in 2006.
Chris Riley earned the last spot on the Ryder Cup team this year with 576.786 points. Hamilton would have had 1,050 points just from his Honda and British Open victories. John Daly would have had more than 700 points from his Buick Invitational victory and four other Top 10s.
"I think it's a step in the right direction," said Scott Verplank, who finished out of the top 10 last year and failed to make the Ryder Cup team. "It rewards a guy playing well at that time."
Left intact were two criteria that some players wanted to see changed.
The PGA treated every tour event that isn't a major the same. That means points earned at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic or the B.C. Open -- among the weakest fields on tour -- are equal to The Players Championship, regarded as the fifth major with the strongest and deepest field in the world.