Paul casey is no longer smiling. (USATSI)
Paul Casey is no longer smiling. (USATSI)

There are rants. There is Mike Gundy being a 40-year-old man. And then there is Paul Casey speaking on the European Tour's eligibility rules that keep him from qualifying for the Ryder Cup.

Here's what the European Tour did recently.

It relaxed its rules on what you have to do to qualify for European Tour membership (and thus play in the Ryder Cup). Instead of playing in 13 tournaments you only have to play in five. Sounds great, right? Except now those five can't include any majors or WGC events like they used to. There are eight of those that players like Casey (ranked No. 30 in the world) play in so, in reality, the requirement was always five "other" tournaments for top players.

"I was really frustrated when I read (European Tour CEO) Keith Pelley's press release," Casey told The Times. "It was infuriating actually. He was saying he had done everything he could to make it easier for Paul Casey to play the European Tour. Keith Pelley -- you did not. 

"I know the new rules help those outside the top 50. But I'm inside the top 50 and so playing five outside the WGCs and the majors is pretty much exactly the same as what they wanted from guys in my position before the rule change.

"I like to think that, if Samuel Ryder were alive today and saw the present situation, he would be saying that this was not what he envisioned when he came up with the original idea for the matches. Last time I looked I was European, so that should be enough to make me eligible."

Weeee!

Of course the flip side is that Casey could simply go play five other European Tour events a year which doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Casey is based in Arizona now, though, has a family and seems focused solely on playing the PGA Tour. Which will be unfortunate for the European side come Ryder Cup time.

Wink of the CBS eye to ESPN