New European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal has been granted his wish to implement changes to the qualifying system.
The top five from the world rankings list will now qualify automatically with the next five highest players on the European Tour's order of merit next to win automatic selection for golf's biggest team event against the United States.
The captain will pick the remaining two players as wild cards rather than three under the old system.
Colin Montgomerie had to pick the top four from the World list first for Celtic Manor last October, then five from the European Tour before choosing three wild cards.
Nonetheless, Monty still had to choose between Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Edoardo Molinari, with Casey and Rose missing out.
"I am very pleased that the tournament committee has agreed to my request," said Olazabal.
"The only reason that I asked for a change in the criteria is because I believe that it will give me the strongest team possible to defend the Ryder Cup.
"I looked over the last few qualification processes, going back to 2004, and was satisfied that my proposal would give me the strongest team on paper.
"We are going to have a very strong team, but I just felt that this would give the team the best chance to keep the Ryder Cup and that is what we all want.
"At the end of the day, it is the players who are the stars and it is the players who hit the shots and win the points to win the Ryder Cup.
"I would like to thank the committee for their support and I hope that this is the first step to us retaining the Ryder Cup in 2012."