Who Should Steve Stricker’s Ryder Cup Picks Be?
The automatic players for this year’s Ryder Cup matches are on the team, mostly. Now U.S. Captain Steve Stricker is faced with the agony of picking six more to complete the squad.
Someone could flow into or out of the last couple spots with good finishes at the Tour Championship. But certainly, the current top six in the rankings are guys you would want on any national roster: Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay.
While Stricker is spoilt for choice, as the Europeans sometimes say, it’s hard enough to pick three to complete the team, never mind twice that number. No doubt he’s had many sleepless nights. That said, some guys are shoe-ins.
There’s no way Jordan Spieth doesn’t make the team. There’s no way Xander Schauffele doesn’t make the team. They are just too good to leave them off.
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Patrick Reed is too iffy with pneumonia recovery. You can’t ask him to go 36 holes, and a lot of guys are going to have to do that.
To lessen his pain in decision-making, if Stricker has any sense, he will ask DeChambeau and Koepka, who, of guys not in the automatic spot, would you like to have as your partner? The reason for this is that nobody with any sense wants to see DeChambeau and Koepka as partners in Ryder Cup. That would be team scoring suicide. Their personalities aren’t a good fit, and while it may be “just business” to play together, it won’t be a happy pairing. Unhappy golfers typically don’t play well. Sometimes people forget that.
Sure, there are those who would like to see DeChambeau and Koepka play together because they are hoping for a golf course brawl between them. Those people are masochists or sadists or one of those other ists. As much as one might get on the other’s nerves or vice versa, they are big boys and could handle being paired together. But it’s just silly to do it just because some people want to see a personality car crash. For all we know this “feud” is designed to get them to the top of the social media ladder. If that’s the case, it has worked.
But for Ryder Cup, why do that? Why not multiply opportunity for success by asking them who they would like to play with, who they think would be a point scorer or a great deal of help as a partner. Who would make them so comfortable that making birdies would be easy.
It might be that Koepka would like to pair up with Daniel Berger, another Florida State guy. We have no idea who he would like. It’s time to ask him.
Maybe DeChambeau would feel most comfortable with another mad scientist like Phil Mickelson. They could talk wind direction and percentages of humidity and the angle of the dangle of everything. They could drive the Europeans nuts.
Maybe DeChambeau would be comfortable with another slower player like Kevin Na, a noted turtle speed golfer who is 19th on the points list. The issue with that is simple: Na is not known a good putter under pressure. But DeChambeau just missed a pile of putts at the BMW Championship. So, this stuff happens. Sometimes you just have to look at the alignment of your putter head and see why it is off, and no doubt Bryson did.
Another key is to look for guys who can keep the ball on the planet, the way Jim Furyk always did. That means it’s time to look at Webb Simpson. He has proven that he can get it done. He won The Players with his Matt Kuchar style of putting. And before the anchor ban, he won RBC Heritage. They are both Pete Dye designs with small greens, exactly what the players will see at Whistling Straits. He’d go nicely with a Collin Morikawa in alternate shot, and he could be a for sure center of the fairway factor paired with Dustin Johnson in better ball.
Simpson’s already been on Ryder Cups, so he won’t be as much of a nervous wreck as a newbie. And he was a religion major at Wake Forest, so if somebody needs to say a prayer for victory, he can probably come up with appropriate language. As every golfer knows, God’s name often comes up on the golf course.
If something happens to the Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas combo—you never know when a good partnership is going to go south temporarily — maybe it would be good to bring in Scottie Scheffler, a Texan by college if not by birth, as a backup partner for Spieth. He hits it a long way and is sixth in birdie average. In Ryder Cup making birdies is key. Eagles are better, of course, but birdies will do nicely.
And if we need to bring the Captain America spirit, what you could call Patrick Reed Lite, a great pick would be Billy Horschel. Remember, he’s made a putt for $10 million and no one, save Reed, would be more pumped to play for his country. He’s probably have red, white and blue underwear.
If Collin Morikawa has a say, maybe he’d like to play with another Californian, like Max Homa who also went to Berkeley.
And who knows what Dustin Johnson wants. Hopefully someone asks. Most likely he’ll say he can play with anybody.
So, there’s a six-pack and a half of choices.
Stricker has tough decisions to make. It should come down to who pairs well with the top six plus Spieth and Schauffele, who they would like to play with, and then who has that junkyard dog spirit.
Paul Azinger had to develop a testing system to figure it out, and Fred Couples, as Presidents Cup captain, just knew it innately. He knew who liked who and who didn’t.
Just as there are golfers who like to play together, there are golfers who don’t even like to be in the same parking lot with some guys. These are the kind of intangibles that help make a two-some a success. They can all play golf. The rest comes down to making them comfortable while they are on the course. And telling them to play their brains out.