With golf’s major season done and the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs in full swing, next month’s Ryder Cup has firmly been thrust into the spotlight.

In the coming two weeks, both American and European prospects will have their final chances to secure their place at Bethpage Black in New York from September 26-28 via automatic qualifying or put their case forward to be a captain’s pick.

European captain Luke Donald is backing up after masterminding the victory in Rome two years ago, but will now face his greatest challenge as the Europeans have not triumphed on American soil since 2012.

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Meanwhile, first-time US captain Keegan Bradley has plenty of selection headaches to work through, starting with himself.

Scroll down for foxsports.com.au’s Ryder Cup qualification state of play!

How does qualifying work?

Each team consists of 12 players, six who will automatically qualify via the ranking points they have accumulated over the past two years, and six who will be captain’s picks.

The cut off for US players to earn points is after this week’s BMW Championship, the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup playoffs, on August 17.

European players have an extra week, however, as they can earn points until the end of the DP World Tour’s British Masters on August 24.

LIV players are eligible for selection, but have faced a mighty task to earn an automatic qualifying spot as their LIV events do not earn points.

That means they must have excelled in the majors, or in appearances on the DP World Tour, to earn points.

But for most, their best chance of selection comes via a captain’s pick.

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Who has already qualified?

The two best players in the world were locked in for either side some time ago, and now three positions on either team are already confirmed.

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler had already gained automatic qualification for the US team before he lifted the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush.

Having also won the PGA Championship in May, Scheffler has been in sublime form, winning four times in his last nine starts and not finishing any worse than tied eighth in his last 12 tournaments.

But the Ryder Cup holds bad memories for the 29-year-old as Scheffler broke down in tears after a record 9&7 defeat alongside Brooks Koepka to European pair Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg in Rome.

Scheffler will be joined by US Open champion J.J. Spaun and 2024 Open and PGA winner Xander Schauffele as he tries to bounce back from the heartbreak of two years ago.

Spaun moved to second place in the US standings after losing a playoff at the FedEx St Jude Championship last week.

The 34-year-old will be a Ryder Cup debutant following his breakout year that has included three runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour as well as a maiden major triumph.

Schauffele meanwhile will make his third straight Ryder Cup appearance.

For the Europeans, world No.2 Rory McIlroy became the first player to secure their place back in June.

The Masters champion’s blistering start to the year that also included victories at The Players Championship and the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was largely to thank for acquiring a plethora of ranking points.

The Northern Irishman will face the Americans for an eighth time and will be eager to add to his 18 career Ryder Cup points, the eighth highest in European history.

Justin Rose’s victory over Spaun at TPC Southwind confirmed that he will make a seventh Ryder Cup appearance.

Meanwhile, the consolation prize for fellow Englishman Tommy Fleetwood missing another chance at a maiden PGA Tour victory was locking in his place for a fourth straight Ryder Cup.

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Who is set to gain the automatic qualifying spots?

The core of the victorious European team from the fiery encounter in Rome are set to join McIlroy, Rose and Fleetwood in New York.

Robert MacIntyre, Tyrell Hatton and Sepp Straka round out the top six in the European qualifying standings.

All of whom featured in Rome, although, Straka will miss the BMW Championship for family reasons, giving Shane Lowry the chance to jump back into the top six.

For the Americans, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English hold onto positions four to six at present.

In Scheffler (2024 Masters, 2025 PGA and 2025 Open), Schauffele (2024 PGA and 2024 Open), McIlroy (2025 Masters), Spaun (2025 US Open) and DeChambeau (2024 US Open) all major winners from the two-year cycle are currently in the automatic qualifying spots.

DeChambeau and Hatton are the only LIV players in those positions, and US captain Keegan Bradley said at The Open that DeChambeau is a certainty regardless of where he ends up in the qualifying rankings.

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Who else is in the mix?

Bradley faces an incredible dilemma as the 39-year-old’s excellent year warrants him becoming the first Ryder Cup playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.

It would be a big call to place himself alongside the legends of the game like Palmer, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead by playing as well as calling the shots.

But Bradley is tenth in the US standings and 12th in the world rankings right now.

He won the Travelers Championship in June and created a Ryder Cup-like atmosphere with chants of ‘USA, USA’ signing out as he birdied the last to snatch victory while Tommy Fleetwood made bogey.

Afterwards, Bradley said that his victory “changes the story a little bit” after initially ruling out the idea of picking himself should he fail to qualify automatically.

Three-time major champion Jordan Spieth, who is 28th in the US team standings, joked recently that Bradley should leave a spot free for someone else.

“I’m certainly on the outside looking in right now, and I recognise that. I keep trying to convince Keegan that it’d be a lot for him to have to play, too,“ Spieth said with a laugh.

“So he probably should give up that pick, even if he’s a top 10 player and a top 7 player in the world. Just seems like way too much to have to do.”

An interesting decision awaits Bradley on Patrick Cantlay, who is 15th in the US standings but has played a key role in previous teams.

Cantlay was front and centre in the drama in Rome as his decision to not wear a cap in Rome allegedly as a protest over not being paid to play in the event drew the ire of the parochial crowd.

On the back of Cantlay’s stand, for the first time in Ryder Cup history American players will be paid US$500,000 (A$773k), US$300,000 (A$464k) of which must be donated to a charity or charities of their choice.

Cantlay said that if he was captain, he would pick Bradley.

“If I was the captain, I’d pick Keegan. I think he’s played great,” he said.

“If he feels that he can play golf like a normal week given all his other responsibilities, I’m just saying that if I was the captain I think he’s definitely one of the best American players, and his results have shown that.”

Rickie Fowler, who is 37th in the US standings after having been a captain’s pick in Rome, agreed with Cantlay.

“I would pick him too,” Fowler said.

“I think it would be hard to find really any or many Americans that would argue that point. We’ll see. I know he’s maybe getting to the area of the 10, 11 number on points of where he may think, like, ‘Is this a spot where I should not pick myself?’”

After being a contentious ‘boys club’ pick in Rome, Justin Thomas is likely to play a fourth Ryder Cup as he sits seventh in the standings after a resurgence in form, including a first win in almost three years at the RBC Heritage earlier this year.

Thomas was one of the selection’s captain Zach Johnson was slammed for two years ago, as he chose players who had previously performed for the US but whose recent form had not demanded selection, leading to claims of a ‘boys club’ within the US team.

Collin Morikawa is in eighth and the world No.6 would be a surprise exclusion despite being winless since 2023.

Ben Griffin is in ninth and has enjoyed a breakout year on the PGA Tour winning twice, but some of the most interesting calls Bradley will have to make will be on the likes of LIV star Brooks Koepka, who featured in Rome.

Koepka is 76th in the standings as he is in the midst of a career-worst run in the majors.

For the Europeans, Lowry, Rasmus Hojgaard, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Aberg are all in a good spot to be chosen by Donald as they sit seventh to tenth in the standings.

It would be shock if LIV star Jon Rahm was not selected.

The Spaniard enjoyed improved performances in the majors, but the presence of Rahm and Hatton would come after a bitter fight with the DP World Tour over Ryder Cup eligibility when they defected to LIV Golf.

Rahm and Hatton were hit with sanctions for playing in LIV events that clashed with the DP World Tour schedule, and there are appeals are still yet to be deemed successful or unsuccessful, even though LIV have been paying their fines for them.

But tensions have simmered as they have met the requirement for European Ryder Cup selection of playing at least four DP World Tour events per year.

A somewhat outside the box choice would be another LIV golfer in Sergio Garcia, who is chasing a record-equalling 11th Ryder Cup for a European player and adding to his record 28.5 points.

Garcia was one of several Europeans outed before Rome after their moves to LIV.

An interesting decision awaits on Matt Fitzpatrick and Nicolai Hojgaard from the 2023 European team.

Both have had underwhelming years, but bounced back to be at the pointy end of the leaderboard at The Open Championship.