Qualification for Europe's Ryder Cup team ends at the European Tour's BMW PGA Championship, live on Sky Sports Golf, ahead of the biennial contest taking place at Whistling Straits from September 24-26.
Wednesday 8 September 2021 12:15, UK
Ryder Cup qualification scenarios, Europe's Solheim Cup victory and Patrick Cantlay's FedExCup success all feature in a bumper edition of the Sky Sports Golf podcast.
Nick Dougherty, Tim Barter and Alison Whitaker join Josh Antmann ahead of the BMW PGA Championship to discuss the sport's big talking points and look ahead to a huge week on the European Tour schedule.
A strong field are gathered at Wentworth for the final week of the Ryder Cup qualification campaign, where players will have one last chance to impress European captain Padraig Harrington and force their way onto the plane heading to Whistling Straits later this month.
The panel look at the players who could drop out of the automatic qualification places and the golfers still in with a chance of securing a captain's pick, with the guests going through the various permutations on those who could and should be in the European side.
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There's plenty of chat about the challenge facing Team Europe on American soil and some debate on how tough it will be to defend the trophy, although Barter explains why you can't rule out Harrington's side impressing.
Dougherty describes how Wentworth has evolved through the years and who he expects to impress this week in the Rolex Series event - including a couple of the players outside of the automatic Ryder Cup qualification places.
Harrington will hope his side can replicate the impressive achievement of Catriona Matthew's Solheim Cup team, who successfully defended their title on Monday with just their second win on American soil.
Whitaker hails the importance of Irish rookie Leona Maguire and picks out some of the standout performances from the European side, plus reflects on the controversy from the opening day and offers insight from the conversations she has had with players inside both team rooms.
Away from the team events, the panel also look back at Cantlay's $15million victory at the PGA Tour's season-finale and whether the staggered-scoring format at East Lake needs changing, given that 28 of the 30-man field were never in serious contention to win over the weekend.
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