Captain America has made his selections for the U.S. Ryder Cup squad.
Steve Stricker -- not Steve Rogers -- announced his Captain’s Picks of Daniel Berger, Harris English, Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth Wednesday morning at a Ryder Cup press conference. Spieth and Finau have played in the tournament before, while the other four selections will be making their first appearance.
Stricker’s six selections came after a half-dozen American golfers automatically qualified for the team following the BMW Championship: Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay. Morikawa was the leader with 18,883.82 total points in the U.S. team rankings.
Stricker’s selections all ranged from Nos. 7 through 14 in the U.S. team rankings. Finau was seventh, Schauffele was eighth, Spieth was ninth, English was 10th, Berger was 12th and Scheffler was 14th. Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson finished in 11th and 13th, respectively, in the rankings.
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The points system, which features qualification numbers from events as far back as 2019, allowed for six automatic qualifiers compared to the usual eight for previous Ryder Cups. In turn, that gave Stricker two additional selections as captain.
Schauffele, Morikawa and Thomas will represent the U.S. for the second time in 2021. The three golfers went to Tokyo this summer for the Olympics, with Schauffele earning a gold medal and Morikawa finishing just off the podium in fourth place. Thomas tied for 22nd.
The 2021 Ryder Cup will take place from Sept. 24-26 at Whistling Straits in Sheboygan, Wis. The U.S. has an all-time Ryder Cup points lead of 542 to 442 over Europe with the first edition of the tournament being held in 1927.
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Europe enters the 2021 matchup as the defending champion and winner of four of the last five tournaments. Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm have automatically qualified for the European team. Captain Padraig Harrington will make his selections following the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, which takes place between Sept. 9-12 in Surrey, England.
