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Fowler handed USA Ryder Cup captain’s pick

Love will announce his final captain’s pick on September 25, after the Tour Championship.

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“We were still watching at the end, calling guys”, said Love, referring to Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship in Indiana. Love III has one remaining captain’s pick to complete the team.

The Americans haven’t won since Valhalla in 2008, and they have only one rookie on the current roster while the Europeans will be bringing six newcomers to Minnesota. I don’t know how popular he is with the other players, but intense winners are not always everybody’s favorite.

“There were questions late as last night”, said Love. “We went through a lot of scenarios”. According to various sources, the US captain made the final call on the first three of his four picks – you know, leadership stuff that transpired behind closed doors.

Holmes, 34, known for his prodigious length off the tee, has made just one previous appearance for his country in the Ryder Cup, in 2008 when the USA last tasted victory over Europe.

Kuchar, who has played in the three previous Ryder Cups, was grateful to be selected. Is there not a greater need for the USA to bring in new blood to reinvigorate their Ryder Cup fortunes? “But obviously there’s more room for me to improve as a man, and hopefully the next year or the year after I will”. But then he squandered a 2-stroke lead with two holes to play in the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February, eventually losing to Hideki Matsuyama in a playoff. In the last three seasons, Holmes has amassed 15 top-10 finishes, two victories, two runner-up finishes and one third-place showing. That’s the biggest thing I’ve told several players, ‘It’s not a scoring contest at the Tour Championship for who gets the Ryder Cup pick’.

Despite being one of Love’s vice-captains, I thought Furyk would have a good chance of a wild card. “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”. We looked at a lot of factors making the picks, and we made sure that we fit in, not necessarily the guy with the best putting stat, or the longest driver, or the highest-ranked points.

The three players will join Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Jimmy Walker and Brandt Snedeker at Hazeltine in a little over two weeks. Zero. The most matches without a Ryder Cup point in history.

Furyk was also passed over despite finishing tied for fifth and shooting 58 at the Travelers Championship.

He looked to be a lock for the team earlier this year after he won four times in 19 starts in 2015-16, including victories in the 2015 Players Championship, 2015 Deutsche Bank Championship and 2016 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.

Some will insist that instead of Fowler, that pick should have gone to another young star with some moxie, like Daniel Berger or Justin Thomas.

“These guys added a lot statistically, emotionally, leadership, for a lot of reasons, and so the next guy is going to have to step up and fill a role as well”. Kuchar said. “That would be incredible”.

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He was asked what Watson would have to do at the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake to get the last captain’s pick.

Bubba Watson- Reuters