Brooks Koepka Presents a Ryder Cup Dilemma for Captain Zach Johnson
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — With all the acrimony in professional golf over the past year, from defections to LIV Golf, animosity spewed from both sides, lawsuits, suspensions, player bans, tour resignations, OWGR tussles ... there remains a somewhat ironic loophole.
The Ryder Cup.
Specifically, the PGA of America’s fine print which allows LIV golfers who are and will still be members of the organization to participate in the Ryder Cup.
Given the closeness of the PGA of America and the PGA Tour – which has suspended members who did not resign and place a minimum one-year restriction on anyone who goes to LIV Golf – it is interesting that this possibility exists.
Hence, after finishing tied for second at the Masters and winning the PGA Championship, Brooks Koepka is second in the U.S. Ryder Cup team standings behind Scottie Scheffler.
More Weekly Read: Ball Rollback Fallout | Cam Smith is (Possibly) Back | Fore! Things
Xander Schauffele, Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay and Cameron Young occupy the remaining top six automatic qualifying spots.
All of those players will continue to earn points at PGA Tour events while Koepka will not. So he inevitably will slip. But if he has good performances at the U.S. Open and the British Open, it is conceivable that he will make the team without any of the drama that will come with captain Zach Johnson having to pick him.
"Yeah, he’s on the team," Johnson said Sunday at Oak Hill when asked if a player who finishes on in the top six would be included. "He’s got direct ownership in that, absolutely."
It is beyond that where the situation gets dicey and will not be much fun for Johnson over the coming months.
He has certainly been put in a tough spot having to answer the question of whether he should or can or wants to pick LIV players for his team that will face Europe in Rome at the end of September.
It’s difficult because Johnson asked for none of this. He was appointed captain a little more than a year ago, a well-deserved honor based on two major championship victories and his own participation in the Ryder Cup as a player and an assistant over the years.
Now he gets questioned at every turn about this issue, and being the nice guy that he is, has difficulty shutting it down while seemingly being sincere in saying he does not have all the answers.
That’s why his post-round media scrum on Sunday became a bit awkward at times. Johnson is undoubtedly caught between wanting to field the best team he can without outwardly showing too much love to LIV golfers given that the leadership of his own tour wants nothing to do with them.
"I think it’s too premature, frankly irresponsible, to even have any sort of opinion on that," Johnson said when asked if he’d be comfortable having Koepka on his team. "I think given where we are right now, there’s a lot of points out, No. 1. No. 2, you have a bunch of elevated events.
"Shoot, No. 3, if you go back in history, there’s names right now that probably on both tours that we’re not even mentioning that could have a chance given what’s from us. So I haven’t even begun to discuss picks with anybody that I trust in my circle, specifically the vice captains. I feel like it’s irrelevant to even discuss."
It was an interesting answer. In fairness, Johnson was discussing all this hours before it was clear Koepka would win.
But it’s hard to believe a U.S. captain—who is tasked with winning overseas for the first time in 30 years, since Tom Watson was the captain in 1993 at the Belfry—would not want Koepka has part of this, especially given the way he’s played in two major championships this year.
Yes, there’s a long way to go, but if Koepka drops to say eighth or 10th, would you not pick him? Knowing that he’d clearly have made the team easily if he were playing in regular PGA Tour events, too?
Let’s be clear: this is a choice Koepka made, and like all of the others such as world ranking points and no access to PGA Tour events, the possibility of missing out on the Ryder Cup was always real. Phil Mickelson will not be a U.S. Ryder Cup captain, unless something drastic changes. Same on the European side for Ian Poutler and Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia.
But there’s that PGA of America loophole ...
Koepka is a solid if not great 6-5-1 in three Ryder Cup appearances. He went 2-2 at Whistling Straits, splitting two matches with partner Daniel Berger, losing with Jordan Spieth and winning his singles match. He was 1-2-1 in a lopsided U.S. defeat in 2018 in France. And he was 3-1 in his first Ryder Cup, a U.S. victory in 2016 at Hazeltine.
That was before Koepka went on his five-major run which has seen him finish in the top-10 in 14 of the 23 majors he’s played starting in 2017. It’s a phenomenal run and, for now, makes him the best U.S. player.
Can he sustain it? That is why it is probably prudent for Johnson to dance around the questions.
"The guys who are on the PGA Tour who make that team, they have direct ownership in that collectively," Johnson said. "So for me to stand here and say that I would feel comfortable or uncomfortable with it would be, I think, irresponsible on my behalf because it’s not my team."
It’s true that the players who make the team will have a say in selecting the six who don’t. Scheffler has said he has no problem with any LIV player being picked, he just wants to win. And that should probably be the prevailing sentiment.
But what about the assistant captains? Davis Love III is staunchly opposed to LIV. Fred Couples has not exactly been favorable toward it. And while Tiger Woods has no official role—yet—he remains a strong presence behind the scenes and has made clear his disdain for LIV Golf.
A lot still needs to play out. Spieth is in seventh place and you’d figure a lock if healthy. Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa are also outside of the top six. Tony Finau is 14th.
But look at some of the other names in contention and there is clearly room for a player such as Koepka, and perhaps even Dustin Johnson—who went 5-0 at Whistling Straits.
"I want to win the Ryder Cup," Scheffler said. "I don't care about tours or anything like that. I want to win the Ryder Cup. It's something we talked about ... when we finished (in 2021). We want to beat those guys in Europe. It's been a long time since we've beat them. Whoever the best 12 guys that make a complete team, it's different than individual tournaments. We want a team of guys that are going over there together to bring the Cup back home, and that's all I really care about."