Europe's Ryder Cup team will all have to fight for places in next August's World Championship event in America.

The tournament committee of the European tour has decided that, rather than the 12 players under Mark James' Cup captaincy qualifying for the event as they did this year, the places will go to the leading 12 Europeans on the 2000 Order of Merit.

The cut-off point will be the British Masters at Woburn on August 10th-13th - two weeks before the World Championship at Akron, Ohio.

This August's tournament won by Tiger Woods was restricted to members of the Ryder and Presidents Cup teams. The 1999 US Ryder Cup team will play in the event again next year.