A call will be made at this week's meeting of the European Tour's players' committee in Portugal to make competing in the Seve Trophy compulsory after nine of Europe's top players chose to bypass the event.
The Continental Europe team, captained by Jose Maria Olazabal, ended a 13-year run without a win to defeat Sam Torrance's Great Britain & Ireland squad by two points. Missing from the event, though, were eight players from last year's victorious Ryder Cup side, including the US Open winning trio of Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose and two Europe qualifiers in Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer. Also absent was Sweden's Henrik Stenson, the Europe team's leading qualifier ,who recently won $11.4m in winning the US PGA Tour Championship and FedEx Cup double.
Sixteen of the 20 who competed in Versailles will tee up in this week's Portugal Masters, while three of them, including Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Paul McGinley, the Ryder Cup captain who oversaw the Seve Trophy, are on the committee.
Fernandez-Castano was delighted to be on the winning side last week, but he was critical of the absence of Europe's leading players. "The Seve Trophy is important for the European Tour because it's about getting to know how to play better team golf," said the Spaniard. "I haven't played team golf since my amateur days.
"It's because of this tournament that we are very successful in the Ryder Cup. I don't know what we can do about it [the call-offs]; maybe it has to be compulsory to play, but something has to be done."
Thomas Bjorn, who chairs the players' committee, is sympathetic to Europe's PGA Tour-based players. "We have to understand what those guys playing in the States go through. They come off a massive run in America and, as long as tournaments come so thick and fast, it's going to be difficult for them," said Bjorn.
"One of the purposes of the Seve Trophy is trying to build that Ryder Cup sense in those who have not played Ryder Cup."
McGinley is also reluctant to put pressure on those who didn't compete. "I don't think we need to go down that road; what we really need is a sponsor," said McGinley. "I would love to see the event rotate between Great Britain and Ireland and the Continent. The Seve Trophy is just a great learning curve for all the players and the Ryder Cup captain and for future Ryder Cup captains; they can benefit from the week just as much as I have."
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