Zach Johnson’s anticipated Ryder Cup Pick Six are in, and they come with their fair share of intrigue.
The U.S. captain on Tuesday revealed the final six players on his 12-man team that will take on Europe Sept. 29 through Oct. 1 at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club outside of Rome.
Joining the six who automatically qualified through the points system are Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Sam Burns.
As is the case before every Ryder Cup when the captains must make their wild-card picks, the arguments for those who were left off the team are as compelling as those who were chosen.
The American team, which was already comprised of automatic qualifiers Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele, hasn’t won the Ryder Cup on European soil since 1993.
Johnson, a Masters winner and British Open champion, believes he has the 12 men to end the 30-year winless drought in Europe. And his players believe that, too.
“We know the history,” Morikawa said Tuesday. “That’s all the past. We want to create new memories. We want to create new history for us on the U.S. side, and I think we’ve got the people to do that.”
Johnson characterized the common traits of his picks this way: “Fierce competitors, great versatility, great flexibility when it comes to pairings, when it comes to the fit for Marco Simone, a great fit for each other, which is massive.”
The two picks that are most polarizing are Koepka, because of his affiliation with LIV Golf, and Justin Thomas, who’s struggled with his game for most of the year and failed to qualify for the FedExCup playoffs.
If either or both of those players fail to produce in Italy, Johnson will face scrutiny.
But Koepka was a no-brainer, having finished just 29 points out of an automatic selection thanks to winning the PGA Championship in May and finishing runner up at the Masters the month before.
“Five-time major champion, three-time PGA champion … he’s built in my mind for the biggest of stages, and there’s no bigger stage than the Ryder Cup,” Johnson said of Koepka. “His record shows that. He’s a very versatile. Guys want to play with him.”
Thomas is a sheer gut-feeling pick on the part of Johnson, who’s close with Thomas and has wanted him on the team all along, because he’s a passionate, rugged competitor who also happens to have a 6-2-1 Ryder Cup record.
“One of the most talented players on the PGA Tour in my opinion,” Johnson said of Thomas. “He has, without question, been the heart and soul of Team USA, Ryder Cups, our emotional leader. In my mind, he was born for this, and you just don’t leave JT at home.”
Johnson did, however, leave a couple players at home who surely deserved to be on the team, beginning with Cameron Young, who after being voted the 2021-22 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, finished ninth on the points list and recorded 10 top-10 finishes this season, including a tie for eighth at the British Open.
“It did keep me up at night, having to make those phone calls — specifically Cam, phenomenal player, better person,” Johnson said. “He was nothing but class.”
Other players Johnson had to call with bad news were Lucas Glover, who recently won back-to-back tournaments at the Wyndham and FedEx St. Jude, and Keegan Bradley, who won the Travelers Championship and finished 11th on the points list.
Burns, who finished 12th on the points list, was somewhat of a surprise pick to some because he’s not as high-profile as the other players on the team and he’s the fourth rookie on the U.S. side, joining with Harman, Clark and Homa.
“Having new blood is refreshing,” Johnson insisted. “It’s energizing.”
Unspoken is how close Burns is with Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world and with whom he’ll surely be paired.
Spieth (eighth on the points list) and Fowler (13th) were chosen for experience (this is their fifth Ryder Cup) and because they’re team guys who can play alongside anyone.
“Great putter, great short game, seems he’s never out of the hole,’’ Johnson said of Spieth. “Great match play player, very consistent year. He just seems to bring his best out in the hardest of situations and has all the intangibles you want as a teammate and as a player — a lot of heart, a lot of spirit, a lot of experience. I would say one of our stalwarts on Team USA.’’