The biggest questions to which Keegan Bradley with six choices of Captain Ryder Cup on the left

The PGA Tour will crown its champion of the Fedex season in a win-tour tour, which was turned off Thursday at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Golfer No. 1 in the world Scottie Scheffler will not obtain brain vascular accidents this time, because the tour has once again changed the format with the 30 golfers starting the traditional 72 -hole tournament.

There is even more at stake for many golfers who will train him at East Lake with the 45th Ryder Cup with Black Bethpage in New York over a month.

Six golfers have already made the American team: Scheffler, the winner of the US Open JJ SPAUN, the major double champion Xander Schauffele, the captain of the golf league Liv Bryson Dechambeau and the veterans of the PGA Tour Russell Henley and Harris English.

The captain of the American team Keegan Bradley will make six captain choices on August 27, three days after the last round of the Tour championship.

Will Bradley choose himself to play Black Bethpage? Who are locks to do the team? Who do golfers fly under the radar for one of the coveted places?

Should Bradley choose?

Mark Schlabach: I think Bradley will finally choose because he is one of the 12 best American golfers at the moment.

The six aforementioned golfers qualified for the team on points, and I think Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay are probably locks to make the team. JT played better than the other two this season, and Morikawa’s game was a little in disorder. Cantlay was not consistent either, but we cannot deny its success in the Ryder Cup.

This potentially leaves three points open, and I think it would be difficult to find three golfers who deserve more than Bradley at the moment. He should have been in the team who was smoked by the Europeans of Marco Simone Golf & Country Club outside Rome in 2023. He is ultra competitive, played Bethpage Black frequently during his university career in St. John’s, and New York fans will root for a northeast guy, even if he is a fucking fan of Boston sports.

Bradley’s results have not been great since he won the Travelers championship, a signature event, but he played better with equality for the 17th in the BMW championship and qualified for the Tour championship.

Uggs pairs: In some respects, Keegan and the American team Overlords found themselves in the worst case of their own fact. During any other year of the Ryder Cup, Keegan (currently 10th in the classification) would be an intriguing decision for the captain. Even before you see what he does in the Tour championship, you can assert a case in which he should be and you can also prove that a few other players should be chosen in front of him.

The problem, of course, is that it is Keegan who makes this decision itself. And after being returned to what he said at the start of the process (that he would not do the team unless he qualified for this) after his victory with travelers, all the panels indicate that he is hiding. He even had players who could make the team like Patrick Cantlay, and players who will probably not like Rickie Fowler, argued for him.

Everything is up to a situation “damned if you do, damned if you” do not “. As Rory McILroy pointed out, being a play captain is an extremely difficult task (perhaps impossible), and if Keegan chooses, it will not only add a double pressure to the Keegan plate, but also to make the scenario and the upper discussion go to the event.

If I am rooted for the American team, I probably would not want Keegan to choose, but it seems that most fans want exactly this result. Anyway, I will bring the popcorn.

Do you agree with Rory that you can’t be a game captain?

Schlabach: Last week, Rory revealed that he had refused an opportunity to be the European team’s game captain at the next Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland in 2027. McILroy said he hadn’t even weighed the opportunity because he did not think it could be done.

There is no doubt that a captain of the Ryder Cup supports a myriad of responsibilities with regard to team meetings, media obligations, opening ceremonies, etc. But I think you could also say that once Bradley chooses his team, the most difficult part of his work is over. He has spent the last two years assessing golfers, browsing statistics and analysis and creation of the team’s camaraderie. Team hours and dinner plans would already be defined.

McILroy said that having a game captain would inhibit a team’s ability to deploy his best program for each session. He argued that a game captain could not compete in the two sessions in one day because he should be a leader.

If Bradley and his game partner were to defeat European twinning 4 and 3 during the Friday morning session, I do not think there is a question that it would be back on the course in the afternoon. I think Bradley has more than enough confidence in the vice-capital Jim Furyk, Gary Woodland, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson and Brandt Snedeker to manage things.

Golfer under the radar to do the team?

Schlabach: Three former Golfers of the University of Georgia – English and Henley on the American side and Sepp Straka on Europe – will play Bethpage Black. I think you might say that a fourth, Brian Harman, also deserves to be there.

The former winner of the open championship won his fourth PGA Tour victory at the Valero Texas Open in April and equaled the 10th to Open to Royal Portrush. He equaled the third to the RBC heritage and was solo eighth among travelers.

Harman is 12th in points before the championship of this week tour and probably needs another solid finish to be seriously considered. He was a stellar match of match match as a junior and went 2-2 during his beginnings to Ryder Cup at Marco Simone.

Sam Burns seemed to be outside looking at n ° 16 in points, but he equaled the fourth at the BMW championship to take a momentum. Burns won the latest edition of the WGC-Dell Technologies match in 2023 and leads the tour in the hits won: Put (.921), which cannot be overlooked at the Ryder Cup.

Uggetti: On the United States side, I think the guy who has really made an argument to be a choice that is not too discussed is Maverick McNealy.

Even if McNealy did not win on tour this year, he was one of the most coherent players this season, totaling 10 top-25, including seven top-10 and a finalist. McNealy is a top 25 player in the OWGR and a top-30 player by Datagolf. He is the 13th best American right now in the blows and finished solo third at the BMW this week, which places him in 11th in the Ryder Cup ranking.

The graduate of Stanford is in no way an infallible choice, but while he is now heading for his very first appearance in the touring championship that came out of one of his best performances of the season, he always has a blow to leave a strong impression with Keegan & Co.

What is most important: a recent form or an experience of Ryder Cup?

Uggetti: The answer is obviously both, but if each of these factors was on the opposite sides of a swing, I think that the Ryder Cup experience would prevail over the recent form if ever slightly. The match match is no longer part of the PGA Tour and had to play this format with the energy of thousands of fans around you, there is something to say not to have been overwhelmed by the moment because you have already experienced it. This is why players such as Cantlay and Morikawa will probably get the green light despite not playing their best golf course in recent times.

Who are your six choices for the American team and why?

Schlabach: As I mentioned above, I think Thomas, Morikawa and Cantlay are almost locks to make the team, leaving a handful of golfers in competition for three places. By entering East Lake, I would say that Cameron Young has the most momentum due to the recent form, the formatting of courses. He made it fall a mile from the tee and is from New York.

If Bradley does not choose himself, I think it probably comes down to Ben Griffin, McNealy, Chris Gotterup, Burns and Harman for one or two places. If I am Bradley, I go with the experience and I choose Burns or Harman, according to what is happening this week at East Lake.

Uggetti: From this moment, I think the six players I would choose – and to be clear, it is not who I think Keegan will choose – are Justin Thomas, Ben Griffin, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Cam Young and Chris Gotterup.

The first four are obvious, in my opinion, given a combination of past history at the event as well as the recent form. Although Thomas, Morikawa and Cantlay played well enough to make East Lake, they benefit from the first, while nobody embodies the latter better than Griffin, who was a force this season, winning twice (adding nine top-10) and continuing to support his game tournament after the tournament.

The last two choices are the most difficult and probably where there can be a drama. I do not think that Keegan can reasonably be taken for Young, who has come lately and has not only marked his first PGA Tour victory recently, but also accumulated his game and did the Tour championship. Not to mention how his game could be suitable for Bethpage.

Gotterup is a total joker. He barely did the touring championship after a week below the BMW and although he shone during the swing abroad, there may not be enough adhesive tape, if you want, to leave. Conversely, that is also why it may be the right type of choice.

The chances of the American team will not be summed up with what Gotterup point is good or not at Bethpage, but just like Bob Macintyre for euros in Rome, it could add exactly the type of energy that the team may need its 12th member. The opposite argument would say that Bradley would add this and more if he was the 12th man, but choosing Gotterup also accomplishes something else: it allows Bradley to be the captain.