MILAN, Italy (PA) -- Robert Karlsson is hoping his decision not to play The Players Championship in Florida this week pays massive dividends for him in the Italian Open.

Last year at Sawgrass, the Ryder Cup Swede hit back from an opening 77 to finish in sixth place, earning about $300,000 in the process. But after confusion over the cutoff point for the world's top 50 to qualify this year, Karlsson opted for the Italian Open instead.

The prize money is nothing like as big -- $2.6 million in Italy compared to more than $9 million in Florida. But in terms of making the European Ryder Cup team, the Castello di Tolcinasco course might just be the place to be.

Karlsson could need to finish only ninth on Sunday to climb from his current eighth place in the points race to sixth.

And if you think he is sure to be missing out on more world ranking points in America, then consider this: Winning the Italian Open against a far weaker field is worth the same as finishing fourth on his own against the star-studded line-up across the Atlantic.

The only other player in the Ryder Cup top 10 whom Karlsson faces this week is England's Nick Dougherty. But the 25-year-old from England, ninth in the standings, has admitted that competing just two days after his mother's funeral -- she died from a heart attack 10 days ago -- he could score "67 or 87" in the first round.

Dougherty failed to qualify for Sawgrass after slipping out of the world's leading 50 in March, but Karlsson is 48th and so could have returned there.

"The thing is, though, that I didn't know for certain that I'd be playing," said Karlsson, a part of Europe's winning side at The K Club near Dublin two years ago.

"I was being told that this Monday's world ranking list was the one that decided it, but I didn't want to go over to the States early and then find I wasn't playing. Then my manager was told last week that that Monday's list was the cutoff and I was in," he explained. "It would have been nice if they'd told the players exactly what the situation was, but I'd made my plans to come to Italy by then and after thinking about it for a couple of hours decided to stick to it.

"The last three rounds I played at Sawgrass last year (68-71-66, five better than winner Phil Mickelson) were probably the best I played all season," he said. "Because of that it was tempting to go back once I knew I was in, but I know it can work out for the best for me being here instead."

Dougherty decided to play this week because his mother wanted him to do all he could to make the Ryder Cup team.

"I've not had ideal preparation, but bad things happen to a lot of people in the world," he said Wednesday. "This is a disaster for our family and it's something that will never get any better. I don't know how I'm going to react to it.

"I didn't want Wentworth (the European Tour's flagship BMW PGA Championship in two weeks) to be my first week back," he explained. "I don't want there to be any attention there on what has happened. I just want to get on with it.

"When I got the call from my brother saying mum had had a heart attack and it was touch-and-go your, perspective changes immediately," he said. "I was a little concerned that golf wouldn't mean anything any more because in essence it doesn't. By my mum's favourite thing in life was to watch me play golf. She lived for it and the thing she would most want for me is the thing I'm best at in life.

"It gives me more ambition and more drive to go ahead -- and that includes coming here this week and competing," he added. "Wouldn't it be lovely to win this for mum and win The Open for mum and dad as well? But the only way for me to achieve those things is for me to go back to doing what I'm doing."

One player who has won the British Open, of course, is John Daly, and the American, no longer a full member of the PGA TOUR, completes his two-week trip to Europe looking to make amends for last week's missed cut in the Spanish Open.

Italian Costantino Rocca, whom Daly beat in a playoff at St Andrews in 1995, is also in the field. Rocca is now 51 and in his only tournament appearance this year he finished third on the European Seniors Tour.

Copyright 2008 PA Sport. All rights reserved.