Six down, six to go.
For U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson, his team roster for Rome is halfway complete after six players – Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele – locked down their automatic qualifying spots at the completion of the BMW Championship on Sunday.
As for the other six players, I’m here to help.
The other players should be Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns and Justin Thomas.
Hold your gasps, please.
Yes, Justin Thomas.
That means no to Lucas Glover, Keegan Bradley, Cameron Young, Tony Finau and Dustin Johnson, among others.
It is a happy problem facing Captain Johnson and his lieutenants, given the pool of possibilities from which they will choose, but it also means not everyone is going to be happy. This isn’t like youth soccer. Not everyone gets a Ryder Cup uniform.
Bring up Thomas’ name in any grillroom or suggest on social media that he belongs on the Ryder Cup team and it provokes a reaction, even though he’s 14th in Ryder Cup points, not exactly lost in the wilderness.
It also means that all of the digital data, as valuable as it may be, shouldn’t replace what feels right.
Digital data can’t measure gut instinct and team chemistry, which are critical to Ryder Cup success.
That’s where Thomas earns his spot. I can’t see the American team being better without Thomas than with him.
There are plenty of valid arguments about why Thomas doesn’t belong – he’s missed five cuts in his last eight starts, has just three top-10s this year and hasn’t putted well – and he has been upfront about his struggles this year.
Nevertheless, Thomas is at the emotional center of American teams with his friend Spieth. They are what Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson never were in team play: kindred spirits who make each other better, and it’s infectious.
That doesn’t assure the Americans will win in Europe for the first time in 30 years, but knowing he could send Spieth and Thomas out twice in four-ball matches should be a comforting thought to Johnson. They were a combined 9-1-0 in the Presidents Cup last fall. Though they were just 3-3-2 in the Americans’ dominant Ryder Cup win at Whistling Straits, they are the leaders whom every good team needs.
Schauffele and Cantlay (6-2-0 in the Presidents Cup) are a natural and formidable pairing, but neither projects the passion of Spieth and Thomas.
Maybe Thomas would sit in foursomes play, but he’s going to make a ton of birdies, and his bugaboo this season – a tendency to make one or two big numbers during an event – is minimized in match play.
To borrow a line from the movie “A Few Good Men,” I want Justin Thomas on that wall.
The same goes for Koepka, who was inside the top six in points until both Homa and Schauffele jumped him with their top-10 finishes at the BMW Championship.
Despite television analyst Brandel Chamblee's protestations to the contrary, Koepka belongs on this U.S. team. He won the PGA Championship (the PGA of America runs the U.S. Ryder Cup operation), and he tied for second at the Masters.
Healthy again, Koepka is a force, and leaving him off the team doesn't make it better. Regarding his LIV Golf roots, he's more than earned his place regardless of where he plays.
As for Dustin Johnson, he had arguably the greatest Ryder Cup performance in U.S. history two years ago when he went 5-0. He won three matches with Morikawa and another with Schauffele, and even though he’s gone relatively quiet playing LIV Golf, it’s tough to think that someone else makes the U.S. team better than Dustin Johnson would.
But if form matters, DJ hasn’t shown much this year and, fairly or not, there is a perception that he has lost some of his fire. Johnson has won one LIV event this year, but he’s finished outside the top 10 in nearly half of the events.
Is being Dustin Johnson enough to earn him a pick? It doesn’t feel like it this time, but the idea of sending out a Koepka-DJ pairing may be too much for Zach Johnson to pass on.
Fowler played his way on a while back and may be the feel-good story on this American team. Schauffele and Spieth are automatics, and Morikawa is too good to leave home, even if he’s not a great putter.
That’s the challenge for this U.S team. It’s no secret that Scheffler has struggled on the greens, but pairing him with Harman, whose putting and grittiness go hand in hand, would be a dynamic duo.
It’s putting that earns Burns his spot on the roster. He ranks 12th on tour in strokes gained putting, and on a team with some spotty putters – Thomas, Morikawa and Scheffler in particular – Burns offers consistency. Adding Burns means getting past his failure to win any of his five matches in the Presidents Cup last year, but he looks as if he will be part of American teams for the foreseeable future.
It should be a moment of celebration, but it will come with at least some consternation.
Filling out the Ryder Cup roster means leaving off some very good players. Young has struggled more on the greens than Scheffler this year, which works against him though he seems destined to be a regular on U.S. teams in the future.
Bradley desperately wants to be on the team. Although his resurgence hasn’t drawn the attention that Fowler’s has, Bradley might wind up being the 13th man in a 12-man situation. Tony Finau hasn’t played well enough, and a 61-58 weekend at the Greenbrier isn’t enough to get Bryson DeChambeau on the team.
That brings us to Glover, who went from outside the FedEx Cup playoffs to into the Ryder Cup discussion in two weeks. If you subscribe to the hot-hand theory, no one has been hotter since late June. He’s like the horse coming up from far behind as the finish line approaches. It could be a photo finish.
The U.S. captain will announce his six picks on Tuesday August 29, from the PGA of America’s new headquarters in Frisco, Texas.
As it should.
E-MAIL RON
Top: Picking a Ryder Cup team can be a juggling act, but Justin Thomas should get the nod.
KOHJIRO KINNO, COURTESY AUGUSTA NATIONAL