2023 Ryder Cup: No Brooks Koepka on U.S. Team?

Six automatic qualifying spots for next month’s Ryder Cup have been claimed. Is PGA Champion Brooks Koepka set to be left out?

The penultimate event of the PGA Tour season, the 2023 BMW Championship, signified the official end of a Ryder Cup qualification period which began in January of 2022.

Six of the twelve members who will be representing the United States in Rome, Italy, in just over a month’s time now know their fate.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, 2023 U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark, and Patrick Cantlay already knew they were guaranteed a spot on U.S. Captain Zach Johnson’s team prior to this weekend.

That left three places still up for grabs heading into Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship. Going into the penultimate event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs Scheffler had accrued 25,857.735 points per the official site of the Ryder Cup to top the U.S. Team Standings.

Just behind Scheffler sat Wyndham Clark with 13,406.920 points, and Patrick Cantlay rounded out the Top 3 with 10,614.750 points—the rest of the six shaped up as follows with one event remaining.

• 4th: Brian Harman – 10, 310
• 5th: Brooks Koepka – 9,421
• 6th: Max Homa – 8,848

Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, and Cameron Young rounded out the Top 9.

Brooks Koepka surpassed by Xander Schauffele on the final day.

In order for Brooks Koepka to have hung on to one of the automatic qualifying spots he needed one of Max Homa or Xander Schauffele to finish outside of the Top 9 at the BMW Championship, unfortunately, the results seem to have conspired against the PGA Champion on this occasion and he was projected to narrowly miss out as a result.

Max Homa is set to climb to 5th in the Ryder Cup standings following his T5 finish at Olympia Fields on Sunday, while Xander Schauffele did just enough to steal away the final spot from the PGA Champion with a closing round of two under-68 to secure a T8 result.

One last Ryder Cup statement?

Brooks Koepka has arguably done more than enough to warrant a Captain’s pick from Zach Johnson with his incredible win at Oak Hill in May and his runner-up finish at the Masters in April.

Presumably, both Jordan Spieth and Collin Morikawa, who finished 8th and 10th in the final projected standings respectively, have also done enough to secure one of the final six spots on the roster. Both players will have another opportunity to impress Zach Johnson next week after booking their place in the final 30 who will advance to the Tour Championship.

Unfortunately for Cameron Young and Denny McCarthy, they won’t be afforded that opportunity after both players missed out on one of the coveted Top 30 spots in the FedEx Cup standings following the conclusion of the BMW. Both of whom will hope they have done enough previously to hang on to one of the final spots.

For others, such as Keegan Bradley, who won the elevated Travelers Championship, Sam Burns, winner of this year’s final WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, and Rickie Fowler, who made his long-awaited return to the winner’s circle at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, they will be looking to reinforce their strong resumes at the Tour Championship.

Lucas Glover’s astonishing run to close out the season with back-to-back wins will give Zach Johnson something to think about over the next week and a half. Glover can strengthen his case for selection with a big week at East Lake next week.

For players like Justin Thomas, Russell Henley, Tony Finau, and others, it may be a case of too little too late. Thomas will hope that his Ryder Cup experience warrants his inclusion on this U.S. Team.

Meanwhile, Henley, Finau, and a few others will be afforded one final opportunity to impress before it’s all said and done.

The 44th Ryder Cup will take place Sept. 25th – Oct. 1st, at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, Italy.