Tuesday Tastings - Ryder Cup Update

People's reactions can be funny.  I was on the phone with fellow golf nut, whose view of the forthcoming Ryder Cup is that the Euro team is top-to-bottom nails, and that the home squad is at risk of being mauled.

Which to me is more than a little odd, as I would say that this header captures to changing tone in the golfing press:

Ryder Cup stock report: Are the Americans trending after the Open?

Trending, schmending, all I know is that the Americans are the home team, and my bigger concern is that we may wait a long time to see our next road victory.

Here's that case for the home team:

Oh, how the tables turn.

In mid-April, when Rory McIlroy won the Masters, the U.S. Ryder Cup nightmare appeared to be in full swing. Through the first stanza of the major calendar, the Euros had grabbed the season by the horns, with McIlroy’s three wins fullbacking victories by Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland — and arriving in the foreground of Jon Rahm’s continued strong LIV play. The Americans, meanwhile, were struggling just to tee it up. Scottie Scheffler was grinding his way back from surprise hand surgery in January, providing his first glimpse at life as a mere golfing mortal. Xander Schauffele was grinding his way back from an intercostal muscle strain that would linger for much of 2025. And Jordan Spieth was recovering from wrist surgery that appeared to have been preempted by a career low point.

Three months later, the concerns of the American internet cognoscenti appear to have quieted … for the moment. The U.S. roster is suddenly flush with form and health, and the Americans are riding victories in the final three majors of the year. Scheffler in specific has re-emerged as a force, entering the home stretch before the Ryder Cup fresh off completing the third leg of the grand slam in a blowout at Royal Portrush.

 

Yes, BUT!  Scottie is only one of twelve and, in case you've been in a coma, the history to top-ranked players in this event is, well, where is Tiger when we need him?

So, whose right?  Let's begin with the current U.S. standings (after the 3M):

1. Scheffler

2. Schauffele 

3. Spaun 

4. Henley 

5. DeChambeau 

6. English 

7. Thomas 

8. Morikawa 

9. Griffin 

10. Bradley 

11. McNealy 

12. Harman 

13. Novak 

14. Cantlay 

15. Burns

Are you blown away?  The first question that I always ask myself in such circumstances is, who is missing from this list?   Let me offer up some suggestions there:

Wyndham Clark (16)

Lucas Glover (17)

Daniel Berger (18)

Cameron Young (19)

Chris Gotterup (20)

Jordan Spieth (27)

This feature from Pravda (OK, actually The Athletic, since our favorite left-wing Commie rag doesn't do sports) reads their tea leaves and comes up with this prospective roster:

We know Bryson will be there, and we can be pretty clear that he'll be the only LIVster on the U.S. team.  It may well depend on how Jt and other play, but I've suspected that Bryson will fall out of the automatic pick, not that that changes much.

First, folks won't be over the moon about some of those dark greens, so let's see what they have to say about them:

J.J. Spaun: This is not purely somebody on a team because he won the U.S. Open. He’s been runner-up at the Players and the Cognizant this year. He’s No. 20 in the world on DataGolf, playing solid golf all year. Even if he might ultimately only be the 12th-best player on the U.S. team, you’re very happy to have him.

Russell Henley: I felt confident Henley would be on this team 10 months ago, as he thrived at the Presidents Cup and positioned himself as the perfect Scheffler pairing. Now, it’s so much more. Henley won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and has finished top 10 at four of his last six majors. He can be both a good four-ball partner, as the steady rock finding fairways while his partner gets aggressive, and he’s a great alternate shot teammate who is world-class with his irons and won’t ever put his partner in bad position off the tee. Plus, he’s a fantastic putter. It’s no longer just a nice story. He’s simply one of the best players in the world.

I agree that Henley is sneaky good, though I'm a little surprised that (but too lazy to fact check) that his iron play gets such raves.  I would guess we'll see him in fourballs on Friday and Saturday.

Same goes for this guy:

Harris English: When English won at Torrey Pines, he still wasn’t anywhere near this list. Nor was he after a T12 Augusta. Or even really when he finished runner-up at the PGA Championship. Credit where it’s due. English is fully back. Now at 35, three years removed from back surgery that stunted his career, the 2021 Ryder Cup winning player is simply killing it. Two major runner-ups and three top 20s. And the U.S. will take all the good putting it can get. Even if he gets surpassed for automatic qualifying, he’ll be on the team.

It's just that kind of team, once you get past the first two.  There's no arguing against the guys, they've clearly earned it, but they're not names that will strike fear into black European hearts.  That said, we sent a lot of those guys into Ryder Cups over the years, only to see them play like one of Jerry's kids...

But what do we think of those projected picks?  OK, I guess we should start with the captain.  No doubt he's a tenacious guy who has thrown himself heart and soul into the endeavor, but it needs to be noted that his own actual playing record doesn't support that perception.  To be fair (Ed:, why start now?), that was more than a decade ago, but still....

Since we're on Keegs, let's interject this from the Tour Confidential panel:

The Telegraph reported that U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley requested a rule change to this year’s “captain’s agreement” which would permit an appointed vice captain

to advise players if a playing-captain was in competition. European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald has reportedly agreed to the change, which might be a stepping stone for Bradley potentially playing and captaining at Bethpage Black. Although with all of the logistics and planning that comes with being a captain, is it possible a playing-captain could backfire on the U.S. and go in Europe’s favor?

Alan Bastable: Hard to fathom a scenario in which Bradley does not play. There are not 12 better Americans in the game right now — let alone 12 better Americans who bring the fire and intensity that Bradley does to the course — so the U.S. captain has little choice but to put himself on his own team. That doesn’t mean he needs to play four or five matches; it could mean playing just a couple. He should send himself out in the first match on Friday and get the place rocking. Could it backfire? It could. But I think there’s way more potential upside in him playing than there is exclusively focusing his efforts on speeches and uniform selections.

Sean Zak: It could absolutely backfire. Team Europe definitely wants Bradley pulling double duty. They want streams to get crossed and information to have to come from multiple sources instead of one. All that said, it has to happen at this point. Bradley has invested too much to pull back on his captain’s duties. And he’s too good to pull back on his playing ability. So Team USA pushes forward. I would like to think they have enough cooks in the kitchen to devise a solid strategy for this unique situation.

Josh Berhow: It’s not an ideal situation for the U.S. team but Bradley is one of the 12 best Americans and has to play. Plus, you know he wants to. He’s the exact type of player you want making birdies and hyping up the crowd and bringing the energy at a Ryder Cup. Pulling double duty is not a great situation but I also think it’s a little overblown. Yes, the other stuff matters, but let’s not complicate it — it mostly comes down to playing better golf than the other squad. I talked to Gary Woodland, a vice captain, at the 3M Open a few days ago and he said he’s extremely impressed with how Keegan is managing Ryder Cup duties and playing this well right now. It’s going to get busier for Bradley of course but… maybe he can handle it? Although I am curious if it was ever seriously discussed to completely offload duties to another vice captain and have Keegan just play and take a rain check on his captaincy.

A rain check?  That's the scenario where someone swoops in at the last moment and garbs the glory.... Gee, can't imagine who they contemplate doing that?

The over-under for my rooting interest is Saturday morning, to wit, the time at which the U.S. will have been such asshats that I'll start rooting for the visitors.  Letting Tiger swoop in, after being too busy to help out, would move that dramatic switch in affection to, checking notes, NOW!

Interestingly, Google (and it's AI enhancements) don't seem to know which format will be played in the morning on Friday and Saturday.  I picture Keegan as a perfect foursomes player, the old adage being that you want your best putters in fourballs and your best ball-strikers in the more difficult alternate shot.  If Bradley is going to play, the only real issue I see is in selecting the next session's line-ups, which is largely planned and not affected by the ongoing play.

Ironically, Bradley himself was involved in the most famous incident of a captain changing his plans at the behest of a player, and that didn't work out so well.

Back to those picks, and this on the most notorious of all potential participants:

Patrick Cantlay: Stock DOWN

It was a down year at the majors for Cantlay, who missed three cuts and generally struggled to get it into gear when the lights were brightest. He enters Ryder Cup season ranked 23rd in the world, 19 spots lower than when he arrived at Rome in 2023 as an American match-play killer.

He’s still likely to make the roster (his aforementioned match play record is unimpeachable, and he’s played sneaky-well on the PGA Tour this year), but Cantlay didn’t do much to help himself during the big ones. He’s opened up a window of uncertainty.

Really?  But he's such a team builder.....  Not like he holds himself above all his fellow players....

I'd love for this to be real, it offers the chance that I could actually root for the Yanks, but who are we kidding?  There is a zero probability of this beautiful penis staying home:

Patrick Cantlay: What are we doing here? Suddenly, there’s a strong conversation that Cantlay shouldn’t be a lock. People, he’s a lock. After decades of hearing Americans bemoan the Europeans having all these form-agnostic killers like Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood who win no matter what, now the U.S. has the best cup player of the 2020s and is nitpicking him? My goodness.

Also, he’s not even having a bad year! A poor major run, absolutely. But if we’re going off overall statistical golf, he’s been the ninth-best American. He’s played in 10 signature events this year and been top 20 in eight of them! If anything, last year was the real down year for Cantlay, and he still was the absolute star of the Presidents Cup. Stop this madness.

He may not be having as bad a year as I'd wish upon him, but he was pretty dreadful in the bigge4st event, so I'll just use that to cheer myself up.  But what do we think about this guy?

Collin Morikawa: Stock DOWN

It’s been a weird year for Morikawa, whose public relations battles outside the ropes have been overshadowed by his struggles inside of them, including multiple caddie changes and the extension of a lengthy winless streak.

The good news is that his golf still tops out as clearly one of the 10 best players alive, the bad news is that his consistency hasn’t. He’s the player on the U.S. side with the most to gain from a strong showing at Bethpage, assuming he’s picked for the team (and we’re assuming he will be, even after a seven-over finish at the Open).

He certainly doesn't look like a happy warrior at this point, though a pairing of Collin "I don't Owe Anybody Anything" Morikawa with Patrick "I'll Wear a Hat when I Get Paid For It" Cantlay seems a natural, no?  The over-under for guys in the American team room that your humble blogger hates is, maybe, 4.5.

Collin Morikawa: You are more than welcome to worry about his play the last three months. It’s been a steep dropoff. But Morikawa is still one of the five best iron players on Earth and a guy with four Ryder Cup match wins and a 4-1 record last year at the Presidents Cup. Don’t be silly.

 Gee, didn't realize I needed permission to worry about a guy that looks miserable out there....

The other positive to note about Collin is that, if he's playing like he should, he projects as a top-notch foursomes player, and we always need those.  It's just that it seems right now to be a big if...

But let me be completely candid with you.  While I can make a strong case against those two miscreants, that case is laughably suspect.  Because one can't talk about leaving a guy off in isolation, it's always a binary choice between two guys.

Say you're inclined to leave Morikawa at home.  You look at the points list and the next guy up is Wyndham Clark, and suddenly one has to worry about the lockers at Bethpage.....  

Subject to play through the BMW, I expect that Ben Griffin will be on the outside looking in, and I'm a little surprised that Brian Harman, currently in that 12th spot, isn't shown more love.  He's not the strongest player out there, but he can putt and is a bulldog, literally.

But let me share the biggest issue involved.  The FedEx Cup will finish on Sunday, August 24th at East Lake.  The first day of the Ryder Cup is Friday, September 26th.  Anyone remember the road to Rome?  Their guys played at Wentworth, our guys didn't play anywhere.....  Will any of the Americans play competitive golf in that month?  Because, yanno....

Before moving on to the other guys, let's go back to the TC gang:

Speaking of the Ryder Cup, time is running out for auto-qualifying and bubble players to make their case for captain’s picks. Which big-name player has the most to prove to Bradley to earn a spot?

Berhow: Jordan Spieth is ranked 26th but I still think has a good shot of making this team. As for Wyndham Clark, at 16th, it might be tougher. He’s had a very average year and made more headlines for some unfortunate moments, although we’ll see if this late surge is going to be enough. He tied for 11th at the Scottish Open, tied for 4th at the Open Championship and just had another good finish at the 3M Open Sunday, tying for 12th. Is it enough? We’ll see. If Russell Henley and Harris English lock up auto-qualifying spots it will make the captain’s picks even more interesting. Although a lesser-known name I’m really curious about? Chris Gotterup.

Bastable: Yeah, Gotterup (who is now 22nd on points list) is an interesting one. It takes so much for a relative “outsider” to crack the squad, but, man, he has looked good of late. Feels like he has the mettle to withstand Ryder Cup pressure. Also I don’t see Capt. Keegs falling into the trap of picking guys just because they’ve been there in the past. To me, among the bigger names, Patrick Cantlay is the biggest question mark. He hasn’t had a bad season, but it hasn’t been particularly memorable, either — and his MC at the Open Championship had to give Bradley pause.

Zak: Jordan Spieth has a LOT to prove. People forget that Spieth (along with Justin Thomas) was a part of the Ryder Cup committee put together to lead Team USA into the future. It was a small committee! Mainly because it was believed that Thomas and Spieth would be on teams for years and years and years. Well, JT snuck his way onto the 2023 team and it would take some serious sneaking for Spieth to do that this time. A really good playoffs is what he would need, but do we really see that happening?

He's in the twenties for a good reason, he hasn't played well enough top justify a pick.  I think at this point it might take a "w", though multiple high finishes might get it done.  He'll win a tie with the other options, he's just nowhere near that result at present.

I'm as intrigued about Gotterup as anyone, but feels like a future option more than a current one.  But to a large extent, the cake is baked.

Care to look at the Euros in brief?

1. McIlroy 

2. MacIntyre 

3. Fleetwood

4. Hatton 

5. Lowry 

6. Straka

7. R. Hojgaard 

8. Rose 

9. Aberg 

10. Hovland 

11. Wallace 

12. Detry 

13. Fitzpatrick 

14. J. Smith 

15. Rai

Not the world-beaters the fiend above sees, though surely some formidable talent up top.  There's at least one mega-name missing, so this projected roster seems entirely plausible:

Lots of chatter about Sergio, but I don't see room for that guy.  

I don't see to many spots for argument here, as any off the current automatic qualifiers that might drop out are blindingly obvious captain's picks.  They're not leaving Jon Rahm at home for Sergio, or quite frankly for anyone else.

The guys just beyond 12th place are a sorry lot, no disrespect to Detry or Wallace, they just don't move the needle, and the odd-man-out Hojgaard  just didn't play well enough.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the list from The Athletic will, in fact, be the Euros twelve man roster.

So, looking at those two rosters, who wins?  I think it's easy, the home team wins, because there hasn't been a close on since 2012.  I don't see it this year, though I'll be rooting for it.

It's a busy week, so not sure when I'll next see you.  But at least I gave you something to mull over in my absence.