US Ryder Cup Team Confirmed

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2023 US Ryder Cup
Credit Andre61 via Shutterstock

Tommy Fleetwood won the FedEx Cup last week, breaking his PGA Tour near-miss streak in one of the biggest events in the game. He earned a cool $10m for winning the Tour Championship, to go with the $1.16m he won at the St Jude and the $910,000. Not a bad few weeks, all in all.

However, with the mega-bucks FedEx Cup playoffs over with for another year, all attention now turns to the Ryder Cup. The American players will receive a fee for playing but for Team Europe, there is nothing more than pride, honour and sporting glory on the line and the Ryder Cup is all the better for that.

We know that Rory McIlroy, Fleetwood and four other automatically qualified players will be on the European team. Captain Luke Donald will name his final six discretionary picks on Monday the 1st of September, after the Omega European Masters.

However, our focus here is not the European team, but the American one. Like Europe, we already knew the make-up of half the US dozen, but on Wednesday, the home team’s skipper announced his six captain’s picks. There was huge intrigue surrounding the announcement, with massive interest in whether or not Keegan Bradley would pick himself.

The consensus was that in the modern era, a playing captain was not viable. However, there was also broad agreement that Bradley was among the USA’s best 12 players. He finished tied for seventh at the Tour Championship, which only seemed to strengthen that opinion, but something had to give. Spoiler alert: Bradley chose not to play. But here are the 12 players who did make it onto Team USA.

Scottie Scheffler

  • Current World Ranking – 1
  • Age – 29
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 2
  • Major Wins – 4

Scheffler is the dominant force in world golf at present and qualified for the US team a couple of months ago. He accrued a massive 37,180 Ryder Cup qualification ranking points, not far shy of the 40,862 that the players ranked second, third and fourth made between them! He will have a target on his back at the Ryder Cup though, and took just one point out of four in 2023.

Xander Schauffele

  • Current World Ranking – 3
  • Age – 31
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 2
  • Major Wins – 2

Like Scheffler, Schauffele was poor at the last Ryder Cup, also taking one point from four matches. He finished third in the US qualification race and will be a big part of his captain’s thinking at Bethpage. Won both his majors in 2024.

Russell Henley

  • Current World Ranking – 4
  • Age – 36
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 0
  • Major Wins – 0

Henley makes his debut but is an experienced pro and played in the 2024 Presidents Cup, helping the US win with three points from four matches. Qualified for the team by finishing fourth, and his form over the last year or so has seen him rise to a career best on the world rankings.

Justin Thomas

  • Current World Ranking – 5
  • Age – 32
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 3
  • Major Wins – 2

Will be one of the most experienced players on the team and was part of the winning Ryder Cup groups in 2018 and 2021. Like almost everyone, he was poor last time around and had to rely on a captain’s pick to make the team this year. That said, he was seventh in qualifying, only just missing out on an automatic selection by the slimmest of margins.

J.J. Spaun

  • Current World Ranking – 7
  • Age – 35
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 0
  • Major Wins – 1

What a year Spaun has had! He has seemingly come from nowhere to surge up the world rankings and into the US team. Only Scheffler won more qualification points than the current US Open champion, who lost the Players to McIlroy in a play-off earlier in the year.

Collin Morikawa

  • Current World Ranking – 8
  • Age – 28
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 2
  • Major Wins – 2

Another who took one point from four in Rome in 2023, Morikawa was selected by Bradley after finishing eighth in qualification. He has several US-team wins under his belt, including in the Arnold Palmer Cup, Walker Cup, Eisenhower Trophy, Presidents Cup (twice) and indeed, in 2021, the Ryder Cup.

Harris English

  • Current World Ranking – 10
  • Age – 36
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 1
  • Major Wins – 0

English qualified for the team automatically in fifth place. Played on the winning side in 2021 but only managed a point from his three outings. He’ll be hoping for more this time around.

Ben Griffin

  • Current World Ranking – 17
  • Age – 29
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 0
  • Major Wins – 0

One of the more surprising inclusions, he may not have played if Bradley had decided to pick himself. Only boasts two PGA wins and has only appeared in seven majors, not playing all 72 holes in five of those.

Bryson DeChambeau

  • Current World Ranking – 18
  • Age – 31
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 2
  • Major Wins – 2

Qualified automatically for the team despite limited appearances due to his LIV affiliation. That also caused him to miss 2023, though he has a 100% record from his appearances in 2018 and 2021. Will be expected to be a key figure and leader within the group.

Cameron Young

  • Current World Ranking – 20
  • Age – 28
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 0
  • Major Wins – 0

A captain’s pick, the New York native is expected to get particularly vocal support. Was down in 14th in the qualification race but got the nod ahead of certain others due to his greater experience in majors.

Patrick Cantlay

  • Current World Ranking – 21
  • Age – 33
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 2
  • Major Wins – 0

Cantlay was an obvious pick and has a strong individual record over his two previous Ryder Cups. Took a lot of stick over demands for pay in 2023 and is sure to be at the centre of things again.

Sam Burns

  • Current World Ranking – 22
  • Age – 29
  • Previous Ryder Cups Played – 1
  • Major Wins – 0

In terms of the official world rankings, Burns is the “worst” player on the US team and he was down in 16th in the qualification race, also the lowest. He hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2023 but that win was in the WGC Match Play and he is a gritty player.