Antalya, Turkey …

European Ryder Cup captain, Thomas Bjorn is adamant he will not afford Paul Casey any favour despite encouranging the Englishman to region the European Tour.

Casey last contested a Ryder Cup in 2008 but was over-looked as a ‘wildcard’ pick in 2010 by Captain Colin Montgomerie in favour of Padraig Harrington despite Casey being ranked higher in the world than the Irishman.

Since then, Casey has made himself unavaible for selection by not rejoining the European Tour and instead concentrating solely on the PGA Tour.

But given Casey’s remarkable past two years in the US where he has gone close to winning on a number of occasions, Bjorn felt obliged to speak with the now 40-year old so that the Dane has his best team on hand later next year in Paris.

European Ryder Cup captain, Thomas Bjorn is adamant Paul Casey will receive no Versailles favour. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)

Though despite Bjorn’s intervention he has promised Casey no preferential selection favours.

“No, I will not feel obliged as I have to take my 12 best players to France,” said Bjorn after signing for a one-under par 7o on day one of the Turkish Airlines Open.

“If we’re going to have a chance of winning we need our best players. If Paul is among the 12 he’ll be there. If i don’t see him being among the 12, he won’t and paul knows that.

“This was about making him eligible from a position of being where he is in the World Rankings and the way he’s played the last couple of years. It would be crazy to have a situation where he wasn’t eligible to play.

“I had to have that conversation with him and he’s seen that it suits in his life.

“So, I don’t feel under any pressure to pick anyone because  I’ve made no promises to Paul and i wont make any promises to anyone else.

“That’s how the Ryder Cup team works. we’ll go with who we feel are the 12 strongest when we come to the time.”

But while Bjorn is not about to do Casey any favours the Dane would seem closer to choosing Harrington as one of his five Paris vice-captains.

Harrington has been a vice-captain under both Paul McGinley in 2016 and Darren Clarke in 2016 and has been spotted this week in Turkey chatting with Bjorn.

“Thomas is one of the persons that is hard not to bump into,”said Harrington after posting a bogey-free 66 to be sharing fourth place in Turkey.

“So, I’ve been bumping in Thomas and he and myself have been talking, and thankfully we do talk.  We’ve both been prior vice-captains and playing together for 20 years.

“He has been very polite as Darren was and not coming and talking like advice, leaving him believe I am still a player.

“In another two months, three months or six months time maybe that conversation will start changing.”

At this stage, Bjorn has only announced Swede Robert Karlsson as a vice-captain.