@Eric: Thanks for bringing up this issue. There is certainly a variety of opinion, and I do recognize that you have been one of the players just missing out on automatic qualification in the past, and thus adversely affected. You should know I've had the opposite request as well: to increase the number of captain's picks!
I believe the balance is OK for now, but would welcome hearing other opinions.
With this event, I'm trying to match as far as possible the intent of the real-life Ryder Cup, and in that respect, yes, it's true that captains would not be likely to select players who hadn't been heavily involved in the PGA or European Tour qualifying process. That said, European captains have in the past been in an awkward position choosing between players who are clearly among the top ranked in the world, but who haven't played in enough events on their own tour.
That situation seems analogous to ours. In order to have qualifying tourneys that are free to enter (and easily accessible), we're using the weekly 18-hole single-play WGT events. However, these are low prize-fund events, and many top players don't play them as the likely return doesn't cover ball cost. If you're top of the money list, you have to choose where to spend your playing time, and it isn't going to be in an event where 1st place offers 360cr tops.
In the 2 UEL Ryder Cups we've had that have been based on qualification, I believe we've really only had 2 players be picked that could possibly be called 'ringers': Sebicu was picked for ROW last time, and JJ56 for the US @ Pinehurst. Neither took part in any qualifying events. (It must be noted that the US team has had to scramble a little at times, and has chosen players who haven't been that involved in qualifying, but that's mostly due to many fewer US players participating in UEL tourneys or showing an interest in the event.)
However, I believe it enriches the tournament to have the very top players involved (and the two players mentioned are the highest-earnings players ever on WGT). It's an exciting addition for a journeyman like myself to know that I might be paired with or against a Seb or JJ. I think one of the points of community-organized tournaments is to occasionally match up different level players: that is, after all, how we learn and get better.
Also, on this subject, I should acknowledge that while a Ryder Cup should be all about bringing the best players head-to-head, my format does favor Legends, giving them a slightly better chance to qualify than Tour Legends. Partly that's because of the way the credit prizes work... but also it's been partly intentional, one, because I am a Legend and I'm organizing the thing (so am going to put the extra effort in to incorporate Legend leaderboards), and two, because I think there should be events that give an opportunity for up-and-coming players to pitch themselves against the best of the best.
So, like I said earlier, it's a balance, and I'm not committed to keeping this method in the long run. Let's have a healthy debate about it, and I'll consider input.
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This seems a good moment to clarify something about the timing of the event:
I am also aware that the timing of our "new-course" Ryder Cup each year is far from ideal. When the US Open course comes on-stream with uneven lies (usually July), it's too late, with summer vacations, to organize an event... and so we have to wait till September. But that means the qualifying period has been many months earlier. Thus, we miss out on having qualifying reflect players in form: the "Billy Horschel-problem" if you will.
This year, I did consider just waiting and having Qualifying be in the Fall instead, with a November/December event. But the drawback there is that you get too close to Christmas, and scheduling gets very difficult...
... And, with the anticipated release of Pebble Beach in December, I thought there would be a lot of interest in doing our second yearly RC in the January/February timeframe again, and having that be at Pebble soon after its release.
So, that's why we have a Spring UEL Tour, and then such a long gap before the UEL RC @ the VUSO course. Next year, with the US Open being at Oakmont, perhaps we'll have a different schedule.