Some of the Ryder Cup Selections are so bad they’re funny. Without the laughs.
Voice over: Michael Robles
Writer: Mac Engel
Video editor: Lance Keller
Greg Norman and Saudi Arabia’s collaboration to “grow
the game of golf,” and to “bring people to together” yielded
more unintended consequences with the announcement of
the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team.
On Tuesday, in Frisco at the new PGA of America
headquarters, U.S. Ryder Cup team captain Zach
Johnson
announced the Captain Picks
for the final six
spots on the 12-team roster, and someone is missing.
A
few people
are missing.
Other than
Brooks Koepka
, who was a Captain Pick, no
player from the LIV Golf tour made the American team.
But, somehow,
Justin Thomas
is on the roster. JT, you
better at least split.
The 2023 Ryder Cup scheduled for Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 at
Marco Simone Golf and Country Club
near Rome will be
the first played since LIV Golf took a three-wood to the
model of the entire sport.
Johnson said all of the right things on Tuesday, but this
roster has “Friends of the PGA Tour” written all over it.
Any time a Ryder Cup team is picked, there are always a
few decisions to be dissected, and criticized. This one
feels different because of LIV Golf.
The automatic qualifiers for the team are Scottie Scheffler,
Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max
Homa and Xander Schauffele; the remaining six are Sam
Burns, Jordan Spieth, Colin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler,
Koepka and Thomas.
Johnson’s reasons for his Captain Picks are “digestable,”
but the selections reek of a 19th hole frat house,
specifically Thomas.
The U.S. has not won a Ryder Cup on European soil in 30
years; Johnson best start preparing his answers now
if/when this group continues that streak.
Leaving Keegan Bradley off this list feels regrettable.
There are others, Cameron Young comes to mind.
Not even considering LIV Golfers Dustin Johnson, Patrick
Reed and Talor Gooch is a mistake.
“Technically, they do qualify; they had the four major
championships last year counted in our point system. The
four major championships counted in this year’s point
system,” Johnson said. “One of those individuals earned
his way on to our team, Brooks Koepka. He was inside the
top six since his PGA Championship win.”
Johnson didn’t say it, but
Koepka winning the 2023 PGA
Championsip
in May is the only reason he made this
Ryder Cup roster.
Technically, other LIV Golf players, like Johnson, are
eligible.
“They had opportunity,” Johnson said.
It’s hard for a candidacy to be taken too seriously when
the end of your tournaments are cut off in favor of an
episode of The Goldbergs
.
(When Johnson won the LIV tournament last May in Tulsa,
the network carrying the event, The CW, cut away for the
final holes in favor of previously scheduled programming).
All of those players who went to LIV Golf knew this
scenario was in play, so not a one of them should be
terribly surprised.
The more likely scenario is that privately the American-LIV
players who were ignored were a bit surprised that
Thomas made this team over other PGA Tour players.
Thomas has been a brilliant Ryder Cup player, which is
the reason why Johnson picked him. In two Ryder Cups,
Thomas is 6-2-1, including a 4-1 mark in Paris in 2018.
In the present, Thomas has not had a good year. Thomas
missed the cut in three majors this year, and did not
qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Even in the big money world of pro sports, never under
estimate the power of, “It’s not what you know, it’s who
you know, especially if who you know is Tiger Woods.”
Friendships and relationships matter.
“It depends on the semantics of it all,” Johnson said to my
question of how much relationships matter in picking this
roster. “(Relationships) may be part of it, at the same time
it’s more, ‘Can these guys gel and be comrades together.’
The camaraderie of it.
“That’s what I think you’re probably getting at. That’s the
subjective side of what we do that weighs heavy into our
decision making. You want guys to want to be together. If I
were to go to some kind of index and say, ‘We’re going to
take the top 12’ whatever that list may be, I’m not so sure
that may be the best team for 2023 in Rome.”
Anyone who looks at the U.S. Ryder Cup team for 2023 in
Rome will say the same thing - I’m not so sure that may be
the best team.
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