European captain Padraig Harrington has opted to reduce the wildcards from four to three for next year's Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, the European Tour said on Wednesday. The change means nine players will secure automatic qualification — five from the world points list and four from a European list. Harrington will then select three wildcards to complete his 12-man lineup which will look to defend the trophy won in dominant fashion in Paris last year. "I am pleased that the (European Tour) tournament committee agreed to the change of wild card numbers," Harrington said in a statement. "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." The European qualification race will begin with the 2019 BMW PGA Championship and conclude at the same event in Sept. 2020. "I am also delighted to be starting and ending the process at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth," Harrington added. "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." Koepka uses visit to the Big D to prepare for Big Apple Brooks Koepka does not sound too concerned about whether he wins the PGA Tour's Byron Nelson tournament this week as long as leaves the Big D for the Big Apple with his game in good shape. Koepka is the best player in a relatively thin field at the PGA Tour event at Trinity Forest golf Course in Dallas starting on Thursday. Most of the big boys are taking the week off to tune-up at home before heading to New York next week for the PGA Championship. But world number three Koepka, who will defend his title at Bethpage Black on Long Island, prefers to play his way into major championships. "I usually play the week before a major. It's worked for me," the 29-year-old American told reporters on Tuesday. "You don't need to play that great. I like building a little bit of rhythm, finding my game, figuring out how to score, how to manage my game." Koepka has had the Wanamaker Trophy in his possession for only nine months since holding off Tiger Woods and Adam Scott to win the PGA Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis last August. It was the final time the event would be played in the heat of summer before moving to the May date that makes it the second major championship of the year instead of the last. The Masters was held in April, while the US Open will be played in June and the British Open in July. Koepka came close to making it three major wins in four starts when he finished only a stroke behind Woods at the Masters, despite a double-bogey at the par-three 12th at Augusta National in the final round. Even with that near-miss, he still has three major titles to his name — the 2017 and 2018 US Opens as well as last year's PGA. Another prominent player at the Byron Nelson this week is three-times major champion Jordan Spieth, a local hero who lately has fallen on lean times. A tie for 21st at the Masters was his best result of the year and Spieth has slipped to 39th in the world, his lowest ranking since he burst onto the tour in 2013. As popular as Spieth is in his home city, perhaps the biggest gallery this week will flock to watch Tony Romo, the retired former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who remains a beloved figure in north Texas. Never mind that he is a 10,000-1 shot to take the title. Kirk takes indefinite leave to deal with depression and alcohol abuse Four-times PGA Tour winner Chris Kirk is taking an indefinite leave from professional golf to deal with depression and alcohol abuse. Kirk, whose last win came in 2015 at the Colonial tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, has struggled on the course for most of this year, with only one top-20 finish. "I have dealt with alcohol abuse and depression for some time now," he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. "I thought I could control it, but after multiple relapses I have come to realize that I can't fix this on my own. "I will be taking an indefinite leave from the PGA Tour to deal with these issues. I don't know when I will be back." Kirk, who turns 34 on Wednesday, was ranked as high as 16th in the world in 2015. He is currently ranked 188th in the world. — Reuters
