Shane Lowry facing Bridgestone dilemma

Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke believes Shane Lowry has a tough decision to make over his WGC-Bridgestone Invitational title defence in 2016 but is in no doubt the European Tour made the right decision not to sanction next year’s prestigious tournament.

The Tour’s incoming chief executive, Keith Pelley, made a statement of intent yesterday in his first week in the role since succeeding George O’Grady when he decided to withdraw his organisation’s co-sanctioning of the World Golf Championship event, won by Ireland’s Lowry on Sunday, after it was moved into a schedule clash with the 2016 French Open. Furthermore, the Tour decided it would not award Ryder Cup qualification points to its members who decided to play the Bridgestone, handing them a dilemma with the battle for places on Clarke’s team in 2016 certain to be heating up next summer.

The source of the problem is the reintroduction of golf into the Olympic Games at Rio in Brazil, with the men’s competition to be held August 11-14.