Ryder Cup vice captain Davis Love III says captain’s picks still wide-open race
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Among the action items born from the disastrous 2014 Ryder Cup in Scotland was something unofficially called the “Billy Horschel Rule.” Horschel started the ’14 FedExCup playoffs well outside the automatic qualifying, at 35th in points, but dominated the four postseason stops with a runner-up finish at the Deutsche Bank Championship and victories at the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship.
Unfortunately for Horschel, automatic qualifying for the U.S. team ended after the PGA Championship on Aug. 10 and captain Tom Watson announced his three picks on Sept. 2, before Horschel had won his two playoff events.
After the ’14 matches, as part of the overhaul of the U.S. Ryder Cup system, the captain’s picks were pushed to after the Tour Championship to account for the “hot hand” and ’16 captain Davis Love III took advantage. He selected Ryan Moore after he posted three top-10 finishes in the playoffs, including a playoff loss to Rory McIlroy at East Lake.
Moore, who was 20th in the final standings, went 2-1-0 at Hazeltine and the U.S. won back the cup.
For Love, Lucas Glover’s recent run feels like déjà vu. Glover – who, like Horschel in ’14, started the playoffs 35th on the U.S Ryder Cup points list – has five top-10 finishes in his last six starts, including back-to-back victories at the Wyndham Championship and last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship.
“Like Ryan Moore at the time, back in 2016, we took the stats into account. We’ll do the same thing with Lucas. He’s coming up the list, how does he suit the course and who do we partner him with?” said Love, a vice captain for this year’s team. “We’ll look at Lucas really hard this week and at the Tour Championship to see how he keeps playing. You want the hot hand for sure.”
One of the primary concerns with Glover is that at 43 years old he’d be a Ryder Cup rookie playing his first match overseas, which is widely considered one of the most challenging environments in the game, but Love dismissed those concerns.
“I think we’ve learned over the last 10 years the rookie factor might be good for you, the veterans like Davis Love have let us down a lot. Even on the European side, the rookies seem to perform well,” Love said. “Lucas is a pro, he’s a veteran golfer who knows what he’s doing. He’s bounced back again; he’s as veteran as you get.”
The top 6 on the U.S. points list qualify for the team following this week’s BMW Championship and captain Zach Johnson will name his six picks after next week’s Tour Championship. Given the current makeup of the U.S. list, Johnson may face a choice between Glover (who is 16th on the points list) and Justin Thomas (No. 14), who didn’t qualify for this year’s postseason.
“That’s oversimplifying,” Love said when asked if it’s a choice between Glover and Thomas. “We have six or seven [players] you’re solid on and then you have seven or eight more that you’re watching. Eventually it comes down to this guy or that guy, but that’s at the very end.”
Even though the matches won’t be played directly after the Tour Championship, like they were in ’14 and ’16, Love said the next two weeks could be pivotal to decide who earns one of Johnson’s six captain’s picks.
“Zach’s doing a really good job of telling us to watch the playoffs,” Love said. “Today I’m pushing my Jay Haas index cards around and making potential pairings, and I’m like, we only have six or seven guys locked on the team. The big decisions are right around the corner to tell guys they will make or not make it.”
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