OWINGS MILLS, Md. \u2014 Here\u2019s one of the many issues with all the speculation and analysis that comes with trying to figure out who is going to be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team:<\/p>\n
This Friday, the first shots of the competition will still be 42 days away.<\/p>\n
Six weeks is a long time in golf. Form is fleeting and someone who has it all going now might not necessarily see the same success in late September at Bethpage Black.<\/p>\n
Likewise, someone whose game might not be firing now could very well be on top of things when the biennial competition rolls around.<\/p>\n
All of which makes the case for Patrick Cantlay intriguing.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s BMW Championship at Caves Valley is the final week of qualifying for one of the six automatic spots on the U.S. team. Captain Keegan Bradley will make his six at-large picks on Aug. 27, three days after last round of the Tour Championship.<\/p>\n
Cantlay, who is ranked 22nd in the Official World Golf Ranking (he started the year at 11) is not having one of his better seasons, but he has a good Ryder Cup history and has been a strong contributor to U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams going back to 2019.<\/p>\n
But Cantlay is languishing at 15th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings. Despite playing all of the signature events and the major championships, he\u2019s not been able to even crack the top 12 in the Ryder Cup standings. Missing cuts in the last three majors didn\u2019t help. Nor did posting his first top 10 since May last week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.<\/p>\n
And yet, there is that difficult-to-quantify team-golf experience. How much does it matter if you\u2019re not playing well? Then again, how much does playing well today matter?<\/p>\n
Cantlay played a practice round Tuesday in advance of the BMW Championship with Keegan Bradley, who is the captain and also a candidate for a spot on the team. He’s 10th\u00a0in the standings.<\/p>\n
Whether the Ryder Cup has come up in their conversations is unknown, and it was unlikely that Cantlay was going to disclose much when asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve played a lot (with Bradley), especially at home,\u201d Cantlay said. \u201cThere’s not much Ryder Cup talk when you’re out there on Tuesday. Just playing nine holes with a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fair enough. They do play a lot of golf together in South Florida. They played a practice round together last month at the British Open. It\u2019s possible that kind of relationship helps greatly.<\/p>\n
But Cantlay\u2019s biggest asset may be his history in team events. He was one of the stronger U.S. players two years ago in Rome, despite the lopsided American defeat to Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n That week he finished 2-2, the only time in five team competitions that he didn\u2019t have a winning record.<\/p>\n Overall, Cantlay is 15-6-1 in team competitions. He is 5-2-1 at the Ryder Cup, having gone 3-0-1 in the U.S. victory in 2021.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also been a frequent partner of Xander Schauffele, who will be on the team, although they went 0-2 when paired together in Rome.<\/p>\n Asked if he\u2019d pick himself, Cantlay went the diplomatic route.<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately, I’m not in that predicament,\u201d Cantlay said. \u201cKeegan, however, is in that predicament. If I was the captain, I’d pick Keegan. I think he’s played great.\u201d<\/p>\n