European Ryder Cup hopeful withdraws from DP World Tour event

European Ryder Cup hopeful Victor Perez withdrew before the second round of the ISPS Handa World Invitational on the DP World Tour.

Ben Smith

18 Aug 2023

European Ryder Cup hopeful withdraws from DP World Tour event

European Ryder Cup hopeful Victor Perez has withdrawn from this week's ISPS Handa World Invitational.

Perez played the first round round at Galgorm Castle in 4-over 76 which was considerably off the early pace set by Daniel Brown.

The Frenchman was due to play his second round alongside Tom McKibbin and Ewen Ferguson on Friday morning but was listed as 'withdrawn'.

No reason has yet been given for his withdrawal but it will undoubtedly place a dent in his chances to automatically qualify for next month's Ryder Cup in Rome.

At the start of the week Perez was seventh on the European Points list behind England's Tommy Fleetwood, Poland's Adrian Meronk, German Yannik Paul and Scotland's Bob MacIntyre.

More Ryder Cup news:

Paul decided to skip this event despite being only 90 points behind MacIntyre.

The German's agent later issued a statement to Telegraph Sport saying there are 'games within games' and his client was also trying to balance Ryder Cup qualification with his desire to earn one of the 10 PGA Tour cards on offer come the end of the season.

Perez spoke of his desire to be in Luke Donald's side before this tournament began, telling the media:

"At this point it really comes down to playing well these three weeks to get an automatic spot to qualify. All the work has been highly centred around the Ryder Cup. You always want to improve. If you are not trying to get better, then you are getting worse. That is my kind of mentality.

"I feel ready to go. I have showed good form in practice at home which are good signs for me. To have good performances you are going to need good putting. I have put a little emphasis on that. Mentally you have to want to perform. You can't just shy away from the moment."

In other Ryder Cup news Donald's American counterpart Zach Johnson has hinted that he will likely snub LIV Golf players when it comes to his captains picks.

Read about that here

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— GolfMagic (@GolfMagic) August 15, 2023