Edoardo Molinari admits he has plenty of work to do before securing a place on Europe’s Ryder Cup team for Celtic Manor, despite another fine performance at the Scandinavian Masters (Europe 4/7, USA 7/4 to win).

Molinari is now into the world’s top 20 for the first time following his third-place finish over the weekend, when he ended up just two shots behind winner Richard Johnson.

The former US Amateur winner is now 17th in the world rankings but, like fellow European hopefuls Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Padraig Harrington, he still has to make it into one of the nine automatic qualifying places for October’s showdown against America in Wales.

Molinari’s younger brother Francesco is currently seventh in the standings and he is determined to push further up the rankings himself in what’s left of the tour before the Ryder Cup.

“I’m still outside the team, so I need to play very well in the last two or three events,” he said.

Molinari has opted to miss this week’s Irish Open in Killarney but will play the World Golf Championship event in Akron and then the USPGA Championship in Wisconsin as he looks to push himself into contention for a Ryder Cup spot.