The race for a place in Thomas Bjorn's European Ryder Cup team is beginning to hot up and there are just two European Tour events left before the eight players to automatically qualify are confirmed. At the moment Francesco Molinari, Justin Rose, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Alex Noren and Thorbjorn Olesen are in the eight qualifying slots, although there is still time for change ahead of a big week of golf.
Olesen's fine run of form since winning the Italian Open continued with a 4th place finish at the Nordea Masters - his fifth top-ten in his last nine starts - and the Dane has leapfrogged a host of players in the latest Ryder Cup rankings. Olesen is a close friend of Bjorn's and the European captain has indicated that he would rather his fellow Dane qualified automatically so that their friendship doesn't come into a potential wildcard decision.
Bjorn will be able to announce four wildcards for the 42nd edition of the Ryder Cup, which takes place at Le Golf National near Paris from 28-30 September, and a few players will surely be shoe-ins if they don't automatically qualify.
Ian Poulter has slipped out of the top-eight but his Ryder Cup record of 12-4-2 in terms of win-loss-halved and the fact he has never lost a singles match will surely count in his favour if he can't qualify automatically. The Englishman is one of several Ryder Cup hopefuls who will be teeing up at The Northern Trust in the USA this week as the FedEx Cup play-offs get underway.
Paul Casey, who has a 3-2-4 record in Ryder Cups following appearances in 2004, 2006 and 2008, could do with finding a bit of form this week, and he is joined in the field by the likes of Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Russell Knox and Henrik Stenson.
Cabrera-Bello played well as a Ryder Cup rookie during Europe's defeat to the USA at Hazeltine in 2016, taking 2.5 points from three matches, and he has been playing well of late.
Stenson, the 2016 Open winner, has been struggling with an elbow problem that forced him to withdraw from the Scottish Open last month but he finished strongly at the Wyndham Championship on Sunday to tie for 20th. Sergio Garcia missed out on qualifying for the FedEx Cup play-offs after missing eight cuts in his past eleven PGA Tour starts this year. He will surely be relying on a captain's pick if he is to appear at another Ryder Cup.
Meanwhile, Eddie Pepperell is just outside the bubble as far as a top-eight spot for the Ryder Cup is concerned but he could force his way into contention when he tees up at the European Tour's Czech Masters from Thursday. There is all to play for with two events left before those automatic Ryder Cup spots are confirmed on 3rd September, with Bjorn set to announce his wildcards on 5th September.
