KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — For all the drama at the 2012 P.G.A. Championship and all the evident difficulty of Pete Dye’s Ocean Course, the four days of golf here did nothing to alter the core of the United States Ryder Cup team announced just after the tournament’s conclusion.
There were plenty of points available in the system that picks the top eight American golfers as automatic qualifiers. But there was no turnover among the top eight named to the team Sunday night: Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar and Phil Mickelson, who qualified for an American-record ninth consecutive Ryder Cup team.
On Monday morning, the United States Ryder Cup captain, Davis Love III, seemed to strongly suggest that he was leaning toward adding the Ryder Cup veterans Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan as three of his four captain’s picks. Those three are ranked 9th, 10th and 11th in the Ryder Cup standings.
Love has until Sept. 4 to announce those picks for the Ryder Cup, which will be played Sept. 28 to 30 at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago.
The 10 qualifiers for the European team will be determined after the Johnnie Walker Championship on Aug. 26, with the European captain, José María Olazábal, rounding out his 12-man lineup with two wild-card picks the next day.
Furyk and Stricker were mentioned frequently by Love not just because of their experience — Furyk has been on seven teams and Stricker two — but also because of how well they match up as potential partners with their teammates. The team format of the Ryder Cup puts a premium on how players are paired in competition.
“Tiger and Steve Stricker have been a really good pairing,” Love said. “They are both very comfortable with it. Jim Furyk is great because he can play with anybody on the team. He would obviously add a lot of experience and a lot of stability. We love that about him.”
Mahan was “high on the list,” Love said. Last week before the P.G.A. Championship, he questioned how Mahan, who has won twice this year on the PGA Tour, was not among the eight automatic qualifiers.
“How is that even possible?” he asked about Mahan. “Jim, Steve and Hunter have all been there. They have been through the fire, and they have played well the last few years.”
At the P.G.A., Love met with all the players in contention for a spot.
“It’s not like any of us lobby for the team or ask to be picked,” Mahan said. “There’s nothing I’m going to say that makes up his mind for him. Everyone wants to play, everyone is doing their best.”
Other Americans under serious consideration would be Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, Bo Van Pelt, Bill Haas and Rickie Fowler, who is 12th in the standings. On Monday, Love mentioned that Fowler and Watson had been a good pairing.
“We have three weeks to watch them,” Love said. “We have a chance to watch a guy get hot. That matters, too.”
The real focus for Love will probably be events with quality fields like the Barclays, which will feature the top 125 on the PGA Tour at Bethpage Black on Long Island next week. The Deutsche Bank Championship is the following week.
Love said that he had more to consider than just golf scores. The best Ryder Cup teams seem to have a noticeable chemistry.
“It’s important to fit in as a team,” Love said. “And there are a lot of factors that go into that. We want to pick a guy who is really good at table tennis because we need partners for that, too.”
The players gather in a team room on the nights before and during the Ryder Cup. That room is always equipped for table tennis, and tales of heated matches are common.
“I could just throw a dart at the standings and pick four guys that are really good golfers,” Love said of his captain’s picks. “But it’s putting together a team.”
Love’s stated goal is to mix experience with youth, and he will have at least three Ryder Cup rookies in Dufner, Simpson and Bradley.
On the European side, the outcome of the P.G.A. did shake up the mix a bit. Ian Poulter’s tie for third place moved him into an automatic qualifying spot with a little less than two weeks to go. Poulter has been on three previous Ryder Cup teams and was undefeated in 2010 for the victorious Europeans.
Sergio García, who missed the cut at the P.G.A., has fallen out of the European top 10, but he has a long, renowned Ryder Cup record, and it seems unlikely that his Spanish countryman Olazábal would pass him by.
The top 10 Europeans Monday were Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell, Paul Lawrie, Francesco Molinari, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Peter Hanson, Martin Kaymer and Poulter.
García is 11th and Nicolas Colsaerts 12th. David Lynn, the little-known runner-up to McIlroy at the P.G.A., is a surprising, surging 13th.
Last week on Kiawah Island, Olazábal said that nearly all of his choices had Ryder Cup experience. But one potential addition with considerable Ryder Cup experience who definitely seemed on the outside looking in was Padraig Harrington of Ireland. He is ranked 27th.
“Padraig, he has to do really extraordinarily well,” Olazábal said. “He’s way down the list.”
There were plenty of points available in the system that picks the top eight American golfers as automatic qualifiers. But there was no turnover among the top eight named to the team Sunday night: Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, Jason Dufner, Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar and Phil Mickelson, who qualified for an American-record ninth consecutive Ryder Cup team.
On Monday morning, the United States Ryder Cup captain, Davis Love III, seemed to strongly suggest that he was leaning toward adding the Ryder Cup veterans Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan as three of his four captain’s picks. Those three are ranked 9th, 10th and 11th in the Ryder Cup standings.
Love has until Sept. 4 to announce those picks for the Ryder Cup, which will be played Sept. 28 to 30 at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago.
The 10 qualifiers for the European team will be determined after the Johnnie Walker Championship on Aug. 26, with the European captain, José María Olazábal, rounding out his 12-man lineup with two wild-card picks the next day.
Furyk and Stricker were mentioned frequently by Love not just because of their experience — Furyk has been on seven teams and Stricker two — but also because of how well they match up as potential partners with their teammates. The team format of the Ryder Cup puts a premium on how players are paired in competition.
“Tiger and Steve Stricker have been a really good pairing,” Love said. “They are both very comfortable with it. Jim Furyk is great because he can play with anybody on the team. He would obviously add a lot of experience and a lot of stability. We love that about him.”
Mahan was “high on the list,” Love said. Last week before the P.G.A. Championship, he questioned how Mahan, who has won twice this year on the PGA Tour, was not among the eight automatic qualifiers.
“How is that even possible?” he asked about Mahan. “Jim, Steve and Hunter have all been there. They have been through the fire, and they have played well the last few years.”
At the P.G.A., Love met with all the players in contention for a spot.
“It’s not like any of us lobby for the team or ask to be picked,” Mahan said. “There’s nothing I’m going to say that makes up his mind for him. Everyone wants to play, everyone is doing their best.”
Other Americans under serious consideration would be Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, Bo Van Pelt, Bill Haas and Rickie Fowler, who is 12th in the standings. On Monday, Love mentioned that Fowler and Watson had been a good pairing.
“We have three weeks to watch them,” Love said. “We have a chance to watch a guy get hot. That matters, too.”
The real focus for Love will probably be events with quality fields like the Barclays, which will feature the top 125 on the PGA Tour at Bethpage Black on Long Island next week. The Deutsche Bank Championship is the following week.
Love said that he had more to consider than just golf scores. The best Ryder Cup teams seem to have a noticeable chemistry.
“It’s important to fit in as a team,” Love said. “And there are a lot of factors that go into that. We want to pick a guy who is really good at table tennis because we need partners for that, too.”
The players gather in a team room on the nights before and during the Ryder Cup. That room is always equipped for table tennis, and tales of heated matches are common.
“I could just throw a dart at the standings and pick four guys that are really good golfers,” Love said of his captain’s picks. “But it’s putting together a team.”
Love’s stated goal is to mix experience with youth, and he will have at least three Ryder Cup rookies in Dufner, Simpson and Bradley.
On the European side, the outcome of the P.G.A. did shake up the mix a bit. Ian Poulter’s tie for third place moved him into an automatic qualifying spot with a little less than two weeks to go. Poulter has been on three previous Ryder Cup teams and was undefeated in 2010 for the victorious Europeans.
Sergio García, who missed the cut at the P.G.A., has fallen out of the European top 10, but he has a long, renowned Ryder Cup record, and it seems unlikely that his Spanish countryman Olazábal would pass him by.
The top 10 Europeans Monday were Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell, Paul Lawrie, Francesco Molinari, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Peter Hanson, Martin Kaymer and Poulter.
García is 11th and Nicolas Colsaerts 12th. David Lynn, the little-known runner-up to McIlroy at the P.G.A., is a surprising, surging 13th.
Last week on Kiawah Island, Olazábal said that nearly all of his choices had Ryder Cup experience. But one potential addition with considerable Ryder Cup experience who definitely seemed on the outside looking in was Padraig Harrington of Ireland. He is ranked 27th.
“Padraig, he has to do really extraordinarily well,” Olazábal said. “He’s way down the list.”
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