Luke Donald's Ryder Cup options double with six captain's picks

Europe captain Luke Donald will have an unprecedented six wild cards at his disposal for next year's Ryder Cup in Rome.

That is double the number opted for by Padraig Harrington for last year’s match at Whistling Straits, where his opposite number Steve Stricker was given six ahead of the home side’s record 19-9 victory.

Qualification gets under way at next week’s BMW PGA Championship and will end on 3 September, 2023, three weeks ahead of the Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.

The six automatic qualifiers will comprise the three leading players on the European Points List, followed by the three leading players on the World Points List.

Harrington's wild cards were named hours after the end of the final qualifying event, the BMW PGA Championship. The Ryder Cup got under way 12 days later in Wisconsin.

Bernd Wiesberger’s tie for 20th at Wentworth secured his place at the expense of Shane Lowry, who was given a wild card along with Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter as Justin Rose missed out.

Another change, agreed by Donald, vice-captains Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari, and the DP World Tour Tournament Committee, sees a modification in the points allocation for the European Points List.

In previous years, the ratio between the highest and lowest ranked events on the DP World Tour was 6:1. Under the new system, this is reduced to a factor of 4:1.

In a statement, Donald said: "These changes to the qualification process for Team Europe follow in-depth analysis with the team at Ryder Cup Europe and with Thomas and Edoardo.

"I’m delighted that when we presented our thoughts to the Tournament Committee, they were 100% behind them.

"The revised overall process removes the need for points multipliers in the last few months of