Eight men have earned their way onto the 2018 United States Ryder Cup team as the automatic qualifying window for next month’s matches in Paris closed for the Americans following the PGA Championship.
Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Webb Simpson played their way onto the team by merit. The four others who will round out the squad will be selected by captain Jim Furyk in the coming weeks.
The first 8 members of our team!
See you in Paris. #GoUSA?? pic.twitter.com/yw7jouYxFB
— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) August 13, 2018
“I’m excited, and I know these eight players are excited as well,” Furyk said on Monday. “I’ve been waiting 18 months to get a feel for who our qualifiers would be, who the eight players would be, and that 18 months has flown by in certain respects. It also seems like it’s taken forever in others. More than anything else, I’m excited.
“We talked a lot about the type of player we’re looking for on this team and the atmosphere we’re going into in Europe, the boisterous crowd; they have a great crowd. We talked about the team that they will have, which will be strong, and I wanted guys that really enjoy that atmosphere, and these eight guys, when I look at them, these are guys that enjoy that challenge, and I’m excited to have them on the team.”
Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Xander Schauffelle are Nos. 9-12 in the points standings and Furyk could do much worse than taking those four. Matt Kuchar, Kevin Kisner, Tony Finau and Kyle Stanley are the next four on the points list.
Three of the four captain’s picks will be selected on Sept. 4 following the Dell Technologies Championship with the final selection to be made the following week after the third leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
