Ryder Cup 2021: Rookies Will Make or Break Americans

One of the biggest questions going into any Ryder Cup are, who are the rookies, and how many of them are there? Well, that answer for Steve Stricker and the Americans is crowded, having six Ryder Cup rookies on his team.

Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay qualified on points, while Stricker chose Xander Schauffele, Harris English, Daniel Berger, and Scottie Scheffler to help round out his team.

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Rookies account for half of the American roster, which has left the team a bit starved for experience. However, when you think about it, some of these freshman were easy choices for this team.

I’m not including Morikawa or Cantlay in this. They both qualified on points because they played so well over the course of the season.

Your painstakingly obvious rookie pick was Xander Schauffele. He’s ranked 5th in the world, won the Olympic gold medal in Japan, and has seemingly been in the mix for every major in the last two years. Schauffele was the layup of all layups in this case.

Harris English was more than deserving of a spot on the Ryder Cup team. He won a couple times on tour this year and was able to get himself up to 11th in the world rankings, finishing in a tie for 18th in the FedEx Cup.

Now down toward the last two are where it could get a bit fuzzy, and not Zoeller. Daniel Berger was an interesting choice. Berger had a really good year with and 11th place finish in the FedEx Cup, he also won at Pebble Beach back in February.

Scottie Scheffler is the one that I think Steve Stricker took a real chance on. Not to say that the 25 year-old hasn’t played well this year, but I was a bit surprised when he got the call to come to Wisconsin for the Ryder Cup.

I thought that Kevin Na was a better option because, aside from Patrick Cantlay and Jon Rahm, Na was the hottest player in the world. He had caught fire during the FedEx Cup playoffs and had a ton of momentum that Steve Stricker should’ve capitalized on.

Having a ton of rookies on a Ryder Cup team isn’t a necessarily a bad thing. Europe brought five rookies to Le Golf National in 2018. The first timers had a combined record of 9-7, on the way to a crushing 17.5-10.5 defeat of the Americans.

I do think there’s merit to the adage of the rookies not knowing how to lose. All of these guys are gamers, they’re all among the best in the world at what they do, and all of them are fearless. But everything changes once you’re standing on that first tee box, ready to get it on. That’s when the pressure starts.

This weekend will be something the rookies have never been through before. The energy, the emotion, and the atmosphere are all turned up to 11. When the tee shots go out, and they start walking down the first fairway at Whistling Straits, it’s sink or swim time. The trial by fire begins.

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Make no mistake, an American victory rests solely on how these rookies perform. If they swim, the US has a great chance to reclaim the cup. If they sink, a 2018-type beat down may be in store.

If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that the Europeans always get up for the Ryder Cup, it will be up to the Americans, particularly the rookies, to answer the call and return the serve on home soil.

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