A look at captain Zach Johnson's options for the final six spots on the U.S. Ryder Cup team
The U.S. Ryder Cup team is halfway set, the top six automatic qualifiers having been determined Sunday.
Now, captain Zach Johnson has the difficult task of selecting the final six members of the team that will compete against Europe in Italy next month.
Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Jupiter's Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele finished in the top six of the Ryder Cup standings, guaranteeing them a spot. Johnson, with input from his vice-captains and those six automatic qualifiers, will announce the remaining six players on Aug. 29.
"It's going to be hard. There's an ample stable of American studs that we can pick from," Johnson said on GOLF.com's "Subpar" podcast. "I firmly believe we can take a number of different tandems and scenarios with us and have a great outcome."
Johnson has a strong list of candidates beyond the next six in the standings, which he is not obligated to select. Two years ago, captain Steve Stricker took the next four in the standings (Tony Finau, Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Harris English) along with No. 12 Daniel Berger and No. 14 Scheffler, skipping over No. 11 Patrick Reed and No. 13 Webb Simpson.
"I don't need to take the 12 best American players because that's hard to pinpoint," Johnson said. "I need to take the 12 best players that make the best team. That's going to be on me."
Two who should be locks to join the team: No. 7 Brooks Koepka and No. 8 Spieth.
Beyond that, Nos. 9-16 in the Ryder Cup standings are: Cameron Young, Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Denny McCarthy, Justin Thomas and Lucas Glover.
Young, Bradley, Fowler, McCarthy and Thomas are from Palm Beach County.
Among the top candidates, only Thomas did not qualify for the 2023 FedEx Cup Playoffs. Koepka is not eligible because he plays on the LIV tour. Spieth, Morikawa, Bradley, Burns, Fowler and Glover advanced to this week's Tour Championship.
Going back to 2010, the captain has picked a player ranked higher than No. 15 twice, both were No. 20: Ryan Moore in 2016 and Fowler in 2010.
Koepka, LIV dilemma
The spotlight will be on Koepka, who fell out of the top six Sunday. He was No. 2 after winning the PGA Championship in May. Koepka also was runner-up at the Masters and finished 29.124 points behind Schauffele. By comparison, the margin between Koepka and Spieth was more than 1,232 points.
Koepka has a 6-5-1 record in three previous Ryder Cups, 2-0-1 in Sunday singles.
But Koepka was limited to the four majors when it came to earning Ryder Cup points because of his decision to join LIV in 2022. The two other Americans to win a major, Clark (U.S. Open) and Harman (British Open) are second and third in the Ryder Cup standings, behind Scheffler.
And the best they did in their other majors appearances: Clark a T33 in the British Open, Harman a T43 in the U.S. Open.
Spieth has played in four Ryder Cups with an overall record of 8-7-1. The others are a mixture of veterans and four who have never played in a Ryder Cup: Young, Burns, McCarthy and Glover.
Nobody, though, is hotter than Glover, who has finished in the top six in five of his past seven PGA Tour starts, including consecutive wins this month at the Wyndham Championship and St. Jude Championship, the first round of playoffs.
After winning in the playoffs, Glover was asked whether he would pick himself for the U.S. team.
"Right now, yes," he said. "Playing pretty good golf and I think I'd be pretty good in the team room and be a good partner. So yeah, absolutely, I would."
Lack of experience may not factor. Rookies were 14-4-3, two years ago, helping the U.S. to a dominating 19-9 win.
But if Johnson does value having players who know the pressure of representing your country in a Ryder Cup, he has four more candidates with nine Ryder Cups on their resumes.
Fowler's Ryder Cup experience goes back to 2010. In four events he is 3-7-5.
Bradley has not played on a Ryder Cup team since 2014. He has a 4-3 record in two appearances. And he would like another opportunity.
"I think about the Ryder Cup every second I'm awake basically," he said last week before the BMW Championship. "I feel like I could bring some experience to the team. I would personally love to just be on a team with this younger group."
Thomas could cause Johnson the most sleepless nights. He is in a seasonlong slump that dropped him out of the top 10 of the world rankings in March for the first time in 5½ years. He is No. 26, his lowest in nearly seven years. Yet, he is 6-2-1 in the previous two Ryder Cups and despite just three top 10 finishes in 20 tour starts this season, he has hung onto a top 15 Ryder Cup ranking.
Morikawa was 3-0-1 as a Ryder Cup rookie in 2021 at Whistling Straits.
"I'm going to make a lot of guys happy and I'm going to make some upset," Johnson said. "I have been on both ends of that phone call."
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: U.S Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson's options for the final six spots on roster that will face Europe in Italy
