Tommy Fleetwood missing another chance at a maiden PGA Tour victory<\/a> was locking in his place for a fourth straight Ryder Cup.<\/p>\n‘The worst stroke we’ve seen…’ | 00:18<\/p>\n
Who is set to gain the automatic qualifying spots?<\/p>\n
The core of the victorious European team from the fiery encounter in Rome are set to join McIlroy, Rose and Fleetwood in New York.<\/p>\n
Robert MacIntyre, Tyrell Hatton and Sepp Straka round out the top six in the European qualifying standings.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
For the Americans, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English hold onto positions four to six at present.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Rose prevails in WILD St. Jude playoff | 03:46<\/p>\n
Who else is in the mix?<\/p>\n
Bradley faces an incredible dilemma as the 39-year-old\u2019s excellent year warrants him becoming the first Ryder Cup playing captain since Arnold Palmer in 1963.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But Bradley is tenth in the US standings and 12th in the world rankings right now.<\/p>\n
He won the Travelers Championship in June and created a Ryder Cup-like atmosphere with chants of \u2018USA, USA\u2019 signing out as he birdied the last to snatch victory while Tommy Fleetwood made bogey.<\/p>\n
Afterwards, Bradley said that his victory \u201cchanges the story a little bit\u201d after initially ruling out the idea of picking himself should he fail to qualify automatically.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m certainly on the outside looking in right now, and I recognise that. I keep trying to convince Keegan that it\u2019d be a lot for him to have to play, too,\u201c Spieth said with a laugh. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo he probably should give up that pick, even if he\u2019s a top 10 player and a top 7 player in the world. Just seems like way too much to have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
An interesting decision awaits Bradley on Patrick Cantlay, who is 15th in the US standings but has played a key role in previous teams.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
On the back of Cantlay\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Cantlay said that if he was captain, he would pick Bradley.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was the captain, I\u2019d pick Keegan. I think he\u2019s played great,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf he feels that he can play golf like a normal week given all his other responsibilities, I\u2019m just saying that if I was the captain I think he\u2019s definitely one of the best American players, and his results have shown that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rickie Fowler, who is 37th in the US standings after having been a captain\u2019s pick in Rome, agreed with Cantlay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would pick him too,\u201d Fowler said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be hard to find really any or many Americans that would argue that point. We\u2019ll see. I know he\u2019s maybe getting to the area of the 10, 11 number on points of where he may think, like, \u2018Is this a spot where I should not pick myself?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
After being a contentious \u2018boys club\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
Thomas was one of the selection\u2019s 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 \u2018boys club\u2019 within the US team.<\/p>\n
Collin Morikawa is in eighth and the world No.6 would be a surprise exclusion despite being winless since 2023.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Koepka is 76th in the standings as he is in the midst of a career-worst run in the majors.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It would be shock if LIV star Jon Rahm was not selected.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Garcia was one of several Europeans outed before Rome after their moves to LIV.<\/p>\n
An interesting decision awaits on Matt Fitzpatrick and Nicolai Hojgaard from the 2023 European team.<\/p>\n
Both have had underwhelming years, but bounced back to be at the pointy end of the leaderboard at The Open Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With golf\u2019s major season done and the PGA Tour\u2019s FedEx Cup playoffs in full swing, next month\u2019s Ryder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[2095,51350,51348,49720,64,63,51353,51346,15814,9267,51339,51363,51355,6933,51354,2791,51336,2057,51340,51356,51330,51337,51358,51352,51331,51342,51344,51360,2105,755,51364,51347,2328,15812,15817,43489,6920,6919,51335,51366,6937,733,2184,1025,2041,2067,51334,51359,51351,51332,51345,51365,6960,6924,3576,756,51338,757,42352,51341,51361,51343,27750,6952,1656,3595,85,51349,51333,51357,973,35127,2614,51362,37655,51329],"class_list":["post-64175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-america","tag-american-players","tag-american-soil","tag-arnold-palmer","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-automatic-qualifying","tag-automatic-qualifying-spots","tag-ben-griffin","tag-ben-hogan","tag-bitter-concession","tag-box-choice","tag-boys-club","tag-bryson-dechambeau","tag-career-worst-run","tag-central-america","tag-englishman-tommy-fleetwood","tag-europe","tag-european-captain","tag-european-history","tag-european-pair","tag-european-players","tag-european-prospects","tag-european-qualifying-standings","tag-european-team","tag-family-reasons","tag-final-chances","tag-gained-automatic-qualification","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-golf","tag-history-american-players","tag-interesting-decision","tag-italy","tag-j-j-spaun","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-jude-classic","tag-justin-rose","tag-justin-thomas","tag-luke-donald","tag-manuel-velasquez","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-memphis","tag-mexico","tag-new-york","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-pebble-beach-company","tag-penultimate-event","tag-place-back","tag-playa-del-carmen","tag-points-rankings","tag-quintana-roo","tag-rickie-fowler","tag-robert-macintyre","tag-rome","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-royal-bank-of-canada","tag-royal-portrush","tag-runner-up-finishes","tag-sam-snead","tag-seismic-call","tag-selection-headaches","tag-selection-squeeze","tag-sergio-garcia","tag-shane-lowry","tag-southern-europe","tag-sports","tag-state-of-play","tag-sublime-form","tag-team-standings","tag-tennessee","tag-tough-final-round","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victorious-european-team","tag-world-rankings","tag-zach-johnson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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