There is still one name left to be revealed, but U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III did announce three of his captain’s picks Monday morning at Hazeltine National, the Chaska, Minn., course where the 2016 Ryder Cup is set to take place September 30-Oct. 2.
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However, Love put him out of his misery with a phone call late on Sunday to leave Watson, who was tied in 20th in IN, the one anxiously waiting, with one more pick to come after the Tour Championship.
Holmes had two top-five finishes in majors this year, but had a poor five-tournament stretch after that, though he did tie for fourth Sunday at the BMW Championship to qualify for the Tour Championship.
“It’s been one of my main goals all year to get on this team, and to get that call from Davis was just a very exciting moment”, Holmes said.
“This is a tough decision”, Love said. “We have another tough decision coming up in two week”.
“That’s probably unrealistic but let’s put ourselves in the best position to win as many of them as possible, and if we win seven out of 10 that’s pretty good odds”. If, as expected, Davis Love III opts for further experience, then world number 7 Bubba Watson is the most likely candidate.
“The Ryder Cup’s a whole different animal and I’m looking forward to that opportunity”.
Despite being one of Love’s vice-captains, I thought Furyk would have a good chance of a wild card.
Love brought Belichick into the conversation again. He won at Riviera, but hasn’t won a singles match in three Ryder Cups. “Some of my greatest memories in golf are from the Ryder Cup at Valhalla”.
That record adds up to lot of bogeys – by players and captains both – given the Americans owned this biennial competition from its inception in 1927 until its first loss in 1985, when the late, great Seve Ballesteros united Europe and changed the entire culture of the thing. Holmes is now second on the PGA Tour in driving distance and is coming off of a top-four finish at the BMW Championship on Sunday. Having had the two overseas, it’s going to be pretty fantastic getting to play in front of a home crowd. Still, when asked Monday how Watson took the news of not being selected among the first three captain’s picks, here was Love’s response: “I’ve talked to a few guys, but I haven’t talked to everybody”. Love said he will consult statistical analytics the PGA of America has hired – just as the Europeans have done – but ultimately he will listen to players’ preferences as well as the opinions of vice captains Tiger Woods, Tom Lehman, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk. The flamboyant left-hander’s form in recent months has been scratchy, while his Ryder Cup record (won three, lost eight, halved none) is poor.
Digging a little deeper into the stats, one can find that Kuchar and Fowler were the two highest non-automatic qualifiers in the stroked gained total stat on the PGA Tour.
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“But I really am thrilled to be part of this”.
