It shouldn’t matter what happens from here.
Brooks Koepka should be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team when it takes on Europe in late September outside of Rome.
From the moment Koepka’s final putt dropped to win what was a magnificently entertaining PGA Championship on Sunday at Oak Hill until Aug. 20, when the Ryder Cup points process concludes, there should be nothing left for debate.
Koepka must be on the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team.
Period.
If the Americans are serious about winning the Ryder Cup on European soil for the first time since 1993 at the Belfry in England, Koepka should be one of the 12 players on captain Zach Johnson’s team — regardless of whether he’s playing his golf on the PGA Tour, for LIV Golf or in a Thursday night bar league.
Never mind the LIV nonsense. Those who question whether or not Koepka is one of the 12 best American players needs to question their knowledge of golf … or their eyesight.
This biennial competition pits American players against Europeans players. The Europeans have been eating the Americans’ lunch for going on 30 years now. Koepka on the American team gives it a better chance to bring the cup home than if he wasn’t on the team.
There’s nothing complicated about that.
The situation is, however, understandably complicated.
The PGA Tour, which is staunchly supported by the PGA of America (the governing body for the U.S. Ryder Cup team and the PGA Championship), has banned the players who are playing for LIV Golf.
Thus, those players are not eligible to accrue Ryder Cup points … unless they’re playing in one of the four major championships.
Koepka has made it difficult for those who want no part of LIV players on the Ryder Cup team by finishing runner-up at the Masters and winning the PGA, two results that have vaulted him from well outside the top-six in Ryder Cup points to second place on the list.
Koepka, too, has next month’s U.S. Open in Los Angeles and July’s British Open at Hoylake in England to solidify his spot in the points standings, with the top six in points earning an automatic spot on the team with the captain making the final six picks as wild cards.
The bottom line, though, is that Koepka, even if he should falter in the next two major championships and fall out of the top-six, should then be one of the captain’s picks.
Conversations this week with Johnson about LIV players and the Ryder Cup became borderline comical, with the U.S. captain steering around the topic like he was swerving his car around a deer darting in front of his car on a dark highway.
One of the issues at hand here is the fact that LIV Golf is suing the PGA Tour, so there’s litigation involved, and Koepka is being paid a lot of money by LIV.
Another issue is whether Johnson believes having LIV players on his team — such as Koepka and Dustin Johnson (the two who are in form and in their respective prime) — will be a distraction for the American team.
That’s utter nonsense for two reasons.
First, the American players, most of whom not only get along with Koepka and DJ but are friends with them, would embrace them as part of the team. This PGA Tour versus LIV acrimony is less about the players than it about the suits running the tours.
These words, spoken by Scottie Scheffler on Sunday at Oak Hill, best represent what American players feel about the topic:
“I want to win the Ryder Cup [and] I don’t care about tours or anything like that. We want to beat those guys in Europe. It’s been a long time since we’ve beat them [on the road]. Whoever the best 12 guys that make a complete team … 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.’’
Secondly, if Johnson were to ignore Koepka (and perhaps DJ) as captain’s picks should neither qualify on points, he would be subjecting himself to far more negative attention and distraction if his team loses without them on it.
This topic opens up enough cans of worms to supply an entire fly-fishing tournament, and Johnson clearly doesn’t like this kind of fishing.
Like the Masters the month before, the PGA of America didn’t ban LIV players from playing in its championship last week because it recognizes that, as a major championship, its product is better if the best players in the world are competing.
The Ryder Cup product is better when the best players from America are competing against the best from Europe. Koepka is one of the best players from America.
He must be on the team.