Zach Johnson may be the most interested observer at the 2023 Tour Championship this weekend as he tries to settle on his six Captain’s Picks for an American team that will face the Europeans at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome.
The top six spots on the 12-man squad were settled at the end of last week’s BMW Championship. Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, and Xander Schauffele were the top six finishers in U.S. Ryder Cup points and automatically qualified for the American team headed to Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.
It’s a solid top half that will anchor a squad looking for its first win on foreign soil since the 1993 Ryder Cup at the Belfry in England.
Scheffler, a two-time winner this year, enjoyed one of the most consistent seasons in PGA Tour history with 18 consecutive finishes at T12 or better. He compiled 27,617 points. Clark, who won his first major at the U.S. Open, was a distant second with 13,738 points, while Harmon, the Open Champion, was third (11,100). Cantlay (10,946), Homa (9,638), and Schauffele (9,450) also enjoyed consistent seasons.
Now comes the hard part for Johnson. The two-time major winner, who played on five U.S. Ryder Cup teams, can be a legend if he wins (see Ben Crenshaw/Paul Azinger) or a knucklehead (see Hal Sutton/Corey Pavin) if he loses to the Europeans led by Captain Luke Donald.
Johnson has until Aug. 29 to make his six Captain’s picks and said he’s considering up to 20 potential candidates, calling it “a pool of immense talent.”
Let’s make things easier for Johnson by selecting the last six picks for him. We’ll start with the elephant in the room: Brooks Koepka. The five-time major winner barely missed out on being an automatic qualifier, finishing in seventh place a mere 29 points behind Schauffele.
Koepka re-established his standing as one of the game’s elite players by finishing T2 at the Masters and winning the 2023 PGA Championship. He also has plenty of international experience having played in three previous Ryder Cups and one Presidents Cup.
Koepka belongs on the team.
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Brooks Koepka as a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team
Yet, because he left the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf there is discussion about whether he’ll be a good fit for the U.S. squad due to the potential of lingering animosity over his defection to the renegade league.
Johnson said something about not getting to watch enough LIV Golf to know players’ form but conceded “What Brooks has done this year, well no one’s surprised. I’m just glad he’s healthy.”
Koepka deserves to wear the Red, White and Blue in Italy. The Ryder Cup is a PGA of America event and it is hypocritical to deny its champion a well-earned spot on the team because of political reasons. Let’s all be adults and move on.
Selecting Koepka and Jordan Spieth, the eight-place finisher, are no-brainers. Spieth has played in four Ryder Cups and is one of golf’s global stars. That leaves four spots.
Johnson shouldn’t sweat that either. Take the next four guys in the points standing: Cameron Young, Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, and Sam Burns. That should be the 2023 United States Ryder Cup team.
What about Rickie Fowler? What about Justin Thomas? They don’t deserve it. Granted, Fowler had a bounce-back year and would be good in the team room. But capturing the Rocket Mortgage Classic for his first win in four years doesn’t deserve a Captain’s Pick. Thomas is known as an elite match-play player but is struggling big time, missing five of his last eight cuts.
The golfer to feel bad for is Lucas Glover, who ran out of time. He is the best story in golf. After winning the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, Glover suffered from the yips and dropped to No. 634 in the world. He missed the cut in five of his first six PGA Tour events this year but closed as the sport’s hottest player.
Glover, 43, finished sixth or better in five of his last six starts, including back-to-back wins at the Wyndham Championship and FedEx St. Jude Championship. His rapid climb ended 16th in the Ryder Cup points standings, one slot below Thomas.
Johnson should stick with the top 12 in the Ryder Cup points standings and begin working on building camaraderie within the team. But if Koepka’s not on the squad, the whole competition becomes a joke.
George Willis is a columnist for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.