Padraig Harrington has successfully lobbied to have the number of wild cards on the European Ryder Cup team reduced from four to three.
The European captain for next year's event at Whistling Straits stated that he wanted more players on his team who had qualified automatically.
“I have said on many occasions that one of the reasons for recent European success in The Ryder Cup is continuity," Harrington said in an official European Tour statement on Wednesday.
"It is a theme that will be prevalent across my captaincy and I think you can see that in the overall qualification process for the 2020 team.
The Tour's Tournament Committee ratified Harrington's wish list at a meeting on Tuesday night which included that one significant change to the 2018 qualification process.
“I am pleased that the Tournament Committee agreed to the change of wild card numbers," added Harrington
"I have spoken to a number of people regarding the ninth player automatically qualifying for the team and in my experience, a player is more comfortable when he has qualified, hence my reasoning behind this change."
Padraig Harrington to reveal picks after Wentworth
The period of qualification will begin at the 2019 BMW PGA Championship and conclude at the same event the following year, after which Harrington will reveal his wild card picks.
“I am also delighted to be starting and ending the process at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. It is one of our most prestigious events, played at an iconic venue and the home of the European Tour itself, and will help give a real narrative to the qualification race.”
Available Race to Dubai points and World Ranking points will be multiplied by 1.5 towards the end of the qualification period, the tournament where this starts to be confirmed when the European Tour issues its 2020 schedule later this year.
Also similar to last year, qualification points in both 2019 and 2020 will not be available anywhere in the world from a tournament played opposite a Rolex Series event, further enhancing the status of the premier series of events on the European Tour.
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