The wildest subplot of Saturday’s third round at the Tour Championship was U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley shooting the low round of the day, a seven-under 63 that catapulted him into contention on a challenging day at East Lake — and seemingly catapulted him onto his own Ryder Cup roster, too.
It just might not be that simple. Because everybody else in the conversation with him? They seem to be in contention, too.
Sunday marks the final audition for U.S. Ryder Cup contestants. While six auto-qualifiers made the team last week, Bradley and his staff will complete the team with six captain’s picks this coming Wednesday. To simplify matters, let’s assume that Nos. 7 and 8 in the standings, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa, are shoo-ins. That leaves us with four spots — and seven contestants vying for them. Here’s my best guess at where they stand, from least to most likely to make the team.
7. Needs a miracle
Chris Gotterup probably isn’t going to make this Ryder Cup team. But it’d sure be fun if he did…
Gotterup is a breath of fresh air that broke up the season of McIlroy and Scheffler with a win at the Scottish Open that added him to this conversation to begin with. He’s got nothing to lose and on Sunday he can play like it; he’ll start Sunday T10 eight shots back. He needs to blow Keegan Bradley’s mind on Sunday — and perhaps even pass him on the leaderboard — to have any chance at nabbing the final spot and bringing some Jersey to Long Island next month.
6. Probably also needs a miracle
Maverick McNealy made a late statement with a third-place finish at last week’s BMW Championship, moving to No. 10 in the Ryder Cup standings in the process. He’s also a terrific putter, which always feels particularly useful in big-time Ryder Cup moments. But I’m guessing two big strikes against him will be his lack of U.S. team experience and his lack of contention in majors. One last charge at the Tour Championship might have gotten him into this conversation — but at T16, 10 shots off the lead, his candidacy feels less and less likely to me.
5. Needs a statement round — or some help
Sam Burns finished T4 at last week’s BMW, reentering the Ryder Cup conversation after a quiet month. He has several built-in advantages: he’s arguably the best putter in the world, he was on the last Ryder Cup team, he went 3-0-1 at last year’s Presidents Cup, he’s best friends with the World No. 1. I currently have him as the last man out — but at T7, one electric Sunday round could give the captains the answer they wanted all along.
4. Needs to keep doing what he’s doing
Cameron Young made his own case on Friday afternoon.
“I think recent form is kind of a hard one to deny,” he said. “Aside from that it’s obviously my home state, it’s a golf course I love. It’s almost exclusively a major championship venue, and my major record is pretty good. So I think there’s a few points that if I had to make my case to [Bradley], those are things I’d like him to know.”
He’s in sixth place headed to Sunday’s final round. Stack that with his WIN-5th-11th last three weeks? He’d be tough to leave off, even as a Ryder Cup rookie.
3. Needs to keep doing what he’s doing — and bet on himself
Keegan Bradley would be best served to forget his captaincy, forget his Ryder Cup candidacy and focus on one thing: trying to win the Tour Championship on Sunday.
This feels like a bit of a shoot for the moon, land among the stars situation; after Saturday’s 63 elevated him into fourth place it feels like Bradley just needs to finish off a solid week to justify picking himself.
Bradley said he knows that whatever he decides, it’ll be controversial, which may actually free him up. He knows that if the U.S. team loses he’ll get crushed, whether he’s on the team or not. If he truly thinks he’ll improve his team’s chances — and his Saturday 63 seemed to suggest that — he’ll do it.
1 and 2. Need to stay vertical
Ben Griffin already felt like a lock to make this team; he finished No. 9 in the Ryder Cup standings. And back-to-back missed cuts in July feel like a distant memory given his other nine most recent starts have been top-12s.
Patrick Cantlay is further down the Ryder Cup rankings at No. 15, but that’s mostly because his season has been solid but has missed a statement week, with nine top-15s but nothing better than T4. Add in his knack for back-breaking putts in team competition and U.S. leadership was always going to try to get him on this team.
He needed to show good health and reasonable form at East Lake; now he’s T1 heading to Sunday’s final round.
If he stays upright he should be headed to Bethpage. If he does a little more than that? He might be headed to Bethpage with $10 million in his pocket.