The US Ryder Cup captain, Zach Johnson, yesterday named his team for the match which will begin at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in less than a month’s time. In some respects, the biggest shock is no shock at all. In giving a wild-card pick to Justin Thomas, Johnson overlooked the fact that the 30-year-old twice major champion has had a terrible season: failing to make the PGA Tour playoffs for the first time since 2014 and shooting 81 and then 82 at the US Open and the Open Championship, respectively, on the way to missing the cut at the LA Country Club and Hoylake, respectively.
“Justin Thomas is one of the most talented players on the PGA Tour in my opinion,” said Johnson. “He has been, without question, the heart and soul of US Ryder Cup teams, our emotional leader. Overall [he has] a fantastic Ryder Cup record. His passion for the Ryder Cup is very evident. In my mind he is born for this and you just don’t leave JT at home.”
We will all be familiar with the phrase ‘E.T. phone home’ from the eponymous Steven Spielberg movie of over 40 years ago, and while I am not suggesting any extra-terrestrial involvement went into Johnson’s selections, his decisions will surely have left Cameron Young with some hefty disappointment. A little over a month ago, Fred Couples, one of the US team’s vice-captains, had seemingly unequivocally told a radio programme that Young “will be in Rome”. But, a family vacation aside, he won’t be.
Thomas joins five other picks who will play alongside the six automatic qualifiers – Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Xander Schauffele and Max Homa. The remaining handful are Brooks Koepka (OK, he’s a LIV golfer, but he’s won a major championship this year and that major was the USPGA Championship, which is run by the PGA of America, the organisation that operates the Ryder Cup on that side of the Atlantic) plus Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Sam Burns, the latter presumably getting the last wild card. He will be a rookie whereas Keegan Bradley and Tony Finau, who have both played in two Ryder Cups and are both marginally higher than Burns on the Official World Golf Ranking, were overlooked. As always, though, it is a strong United States team.
The European team will be confirmed on Monday. Going back to where we came in, Thomas is the lowliest rated American on the world rankings, in 26th place. The Europeans only have seven golfers ranked higher than him while there are four Americans who didn’t make the team who presently sit above him. There are also four Americans below Young who made the team while he hasn’t. Anyhow, Johnson has shown a lot of faith in picking Thomas. By the beginning of October we will know how justified or otherwise that was.
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