JOHN Bickerton's Ryder Cup hopes were dented as Swede Johan Edfors won The Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond on Sunday.
The Droitwich professional, who finished the event in 92nd place, fell back one place to 11th in the rankings for the European team and was replaced by Edfors in tenth.
This means that Bickerton will have to find his good early season form if he has a chance of winning a place in the team taking on the cream of the United States at Ireland's K Club in September.
Bickerton needs to be in the European Ryder Cup ranking's top five to automatically have a place in the team.
He was also nudged into sixth place in the European Tour's order of merit by Edfors, who rose to fifth after winning in Scotland.
At Loch Lomond Bickerton was never in the running for a top ten place on the leaderboard and missed the cut with a two one-over-par scores of 72.
In comparison Edfors was in excellent form to win the event with an overall score of 13-under-par.
The Swede held his nerve after a poor third round score of 74 to win the Scottish Open by hitting 63 in the final round.
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