Davis Love III announced three of his four Ryder Cup picks on Monday, as Rickie Fowler, Kuchar and J.B. Holmes heard their names called during the news conference.
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The three captain’s picks joined automatic qualifiers Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Jimmy Walker, Brooks Koepka, Brant Snedeker and Zach Johnson on the US team, with one more captain’s pick to be named after the Tour Championship on September 25. In the last three seasons, Holmes has amassed 15 top-10 finishes, two victories, two runner-up finishes and one third-place showing.
Fowler, Holmes and Kuchar join Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Jimmy Walker, Brooks Koepka, Brandt Snedeker and Zach Johnson in gaining selection. It would be great if Captain Love could go “outside the box” and pick somebody different, and Daniel Berger would be a great asset. “We went through a lot of scenarios”.
“I’d say the players that are playing the Tour Championship need to try to and win it and not think about Ryder Cup points”. “It was a very tough decision”. The issue Love faced was no one really stepped up over the last three weeks with great play and screamed “PUT ME ON THIS TEAM”. “We’re very confident in them”. This is a tough decision; there were many great choices. However, there is no place, as of yet, for two-time Masters champion and world number seven Bubba Watson.
When Davis Love III and the U.S. Ryder Cup team come to Hazeltine at the end of the month, they will be looking to avoid an unprecedented fourth straight defeat to the Europeans.
Holmes finished tied-fourth at the BMW Championship to advance his claims for selection. Fowler nearly made the team on points but the truth is he’s far from his best now, and his form’s been steadily slipping, as he showed in finishing 59th in a field of 68 at the BMW Championships, to miss out on the Tour’s playoff finale in Atlanta.
Holmes was 10th on the final Ryder Cup points list, two spots out of automatically qualifying. His only otherRyder Cup appearance was in 2008, the last time the U.S won.
“Having played the two overseas, it’s going to be pretty awesome getting to play in front of a home crowd and it will be a completely different feeling for sure”.
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And finally a eulogy to Fowler: “We found no weaknesses in his game”, Love said. The same unflinching attitude that allowed him to transition seamlessly from college to the professional game will also steel his nerves on one of the biggest stages in golf. He outranks the selected players in both categories – the three have a combined zero majors to Watson’s two – and sits higher in the world ranking.
