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Yannik Paul is in the running for a spot on the captain's pick for the 2023 European Ryder Cup team. However, his recent absence from the ISPS Handa World Invitational, which is the third last qualification tournament for the Ryder Cup, has raised some concerns.
Paul's absence at the Galgorm Castle in Northern Ireland has certainly raised some eyebrows within the Ryder Cup itself. According to Yahoo News, an insider source said:
“It’s bizarre, because he is so close to Bob MacIntyre in that fight for the final automatic place.”
The top 3 on the European Points list earn their place in the Ryder Cup team. Yannik Paul, however, is 90 points off MacIntyre. He could have easily surpassed him with a top 3 finish at the Co Antrim, but instead chose to miss out and only play two out of the three qualification events.
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Paul could be passed on the rankings by Victor Perez. He will have been off the golf course for four weeks at the next qualification event in Prague and will find himself in a bit of a sticky situation.
Yannik Paul's manager offers explanation for missing ISPS Handa World Invitational
An explanation was offered by Yannik Paul's manager, saying that the golfer was on the hunt for one of the 10 PGA Tour cards that are being offered up on the European Circuit.
“I can see that other people might believe that Yannik should have maybe played ISPs and that maybe he could have shown a little bit more willing from the outside. But there are games within games at the minute. So we’ve got the Ryder Cup, which is naturally high up on Yannik’s priority list, but he’s also got the PGA Tour cards as well.”
If he were to play all the qualification events as well as the events for the PGA Tour card, he would get tired after five weeks of continuous play.
“Of course the Ryder Cup is huge for Yannik, but we want to make sure that he is in one of the 10 card positions come the end of the year.”
European Team Captain Luke Donald will pick the six captain's pick entries on Monday, the day after the European Masters is over. The pressure is on for Paul to maintain his position on the leaderboard and make the team.
