Paul Casey still wants to be on the European Ryder Cup team

Paul Casey made the difficult decision not to take up European Tour membership for 2016, locking himself out of a potential spot on the European Ryder Cup team. After all, to be on the squad, a player must be a member of the European Tour in good standing — it’s a protection mechanism for the Tour, which runs the Ryder Cup when it’s on European soil.

However, just because the Englishman recognized that the Tour’s changes to its membership requirements weren’t real changes — at least for him — and he chose to focus on the PGA Tour, it doesn’t mean that Casey doesn’t want to play on the Ryder Cup stage again.

“I mean, certainly, a decision I made to focus in the States, I feel has paid dividends. It’s made things a lot simpler for me,” Casey said at the WGC-HSBC Champions. “But there are still desires to play in another Ryder Cup and play some more stuff in Europe. But right now the focus is here and I am enjoying it.”

Casey has been playing some of the best golf on the planet through the FedEx Cup playoffs, where he had three top-five finishes, and into the start of the new PGA Tour season, finishing third at the Safeway Open.

Were the 39-year-old to take back up European Tour membership, he could get on a fourth Ryder Cup team in 2018, looking to improve on a 3-2-4 career record. Though he remembers the slight of not getting a captain’s pick from Colin Montgomerie as a top-five player in 2010, Casey still found it painstaking to watch his fellow Euros struggle at Hazeltine.

“Really tough watching that,” he said. “We know what a pressure cooker the Ryder Cup is, and I’m sure they have a wonderful experience. There’s nothing like representing your country.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.