Nobody spends the summer debating Presidents Cup picks, and maybe that’s a good thing. But there just might be ways to make sure the event still matters.
The U.S. has always just played the rankings straight at the Presidents Cup. No need for debate. The 12 top-ranked golfers get picked. Having five or six captain’s picks is a new phenomenon altogether, and even with the new format, captains tend to use all six on the golfers ranked No. 7 through 12. Maybe a star like Phil Mickelson got picked from three back. Maybe Will Zalatoris threw out his back so the U.S. called on assistant captain Kevin Kisner, ranked 15th. But for the most part, they just played it straight.
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It’s time to mix it up.
We started thinking about this recently, and it had to do with 22-year-old rising star Akshay Bhatia. We assumed he wouldn’t be in the top 12 come August. Here was a charismatic Gen Z face who turned pro at 17 as a junior phenom, has two PGA Tour wins and is one of the more exciting young players in golf. All by the time most people are graduating college.
The thought experiment held that the U.S. — coming off an ugly 5-point Ryder Cup loss in Rome — might want to give somebody like Bhatia a chance at the Presidents Cup in Montreal this fall over some more established pros, that the Presidents Cup could be used as a chance to experiment and test for future Ryder Cups.
Bhatia has helped himself recently — he has played in the final group two weeks in a row, finishing tied for fifth at the signature Travelers Championship and then tied for second at the Rocket Mortgage Classic (a painful missed par putt on 18 kept him out of a playoff). Suddenly, Bhatia is ranked 10th in the Presidents Cup standings and would be picked if U.S. captain Jim Furyk stuck with precedent.
It doesn’t change the question.
U.S. team golf remains in a strong place, but it’s also in a strange place. Jordan Spieth, 30, is as synonymous with U.S. team golf wins as anyone, but he’s coming off a troubled week at Rome 2023 and hasn’t finished better than 29th in his last nine starts. His longtime playing partner, Justin Thomas, 31, is coming off a career-worst season in 2023. This year has been improved, but he’s still not back to being Justin Thomas. Rickie Fowler, 35, earned a pick in Rome thanks to a fantastic comeback year, but he’s struggled in 2024.
Meanwhile, a generation of young stars still hasn’t gotten its chance at the Ryder Cup. Cameron Young just missed out in September. Sahith Theegala fell off hard to end last season to fall out of consideration. Zalatoris had his back issues. And this is not intended as an insult to the International Team that should be respected, but the U.S. has won the last nine Presidents Cups and only lost one out of 14. With some international studs like Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann ineligible this year because of playing with LIV, the U.S. is a 1-to-2 favorite at FanDuel.
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It’s time to use the Presidents Cup as the opportunity to find out who is built for cup competition. Who gets team golf?
Max Homa is the perfect example, in part because his story isn’t just about youth. Two years ago, Homa was building toward something. At 31, he had just won at Riviera and Quail Hollow and was on the verge of becoming a star. Still, he had zero major success, no cup appearances and was No. 17 in Official World Golf Ranking. Then, he went to the 2022 Presidents Cup and thrived. He was the biggest story of the week, going 4-0 as he oozed emotion and showed how much it meant to him. He got it. A year later, Homa was the lone American with a winning record in Rome, going 3-1-1.
As of now, the top six Americans who would automatically qualify for Montreal are: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Theegala.
Theegala, 26, is a budding star who could be part of the next five Ryder Cups. Even if he isn’t in the top six, he seems like a no-brainer selection. But Nos. 6-12 are: Tony Finau, Homa, Brian Harman, Bhatia, Chris Kirk and Russell Henley.
How many of those do you want on the team? Be honest. This isn’t a projection piece or even a campaign for certain players. We aren’t going to go name by name. It’s simply a call to make sure the U.S. is thinking about this the right way. Because historically, the U.S. would do one of two things. It would select Finau through Henley, or it would make room for Thomas (14th) and Spieth (24th). Maybe it should do neither.
Bhatia could easily finish outside the top 12 when it’s all said and done, with enough points still out there with the Open Championship and the FedEx Cup playoffs. The U.S. should still consider selecting him. Bhatia is going places. He’s on pace to become one of America’s top golfers for the next decade-plus, a tall, skinny ball-striking whiz who’s won twice in the past 12 months and nearly just won a third. Even if he’s not quite Ludvig Aberg, you can’t deny the benefit Aberg gained from breaking through in September in Rome. Montreal can be that for Bhatia.
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Young played in the 2022 Presidents Cup, went 1-2-1 and has remained a golf enigma. He’s simultaneously a promising young talent with five major top-10s and a 27-year-old veteran who’s yet to win on tour and struggled to play with the consistency of his peers. He’s No. 18. He was one of the last men out for Rome. Does he deserve another chance in Montreal to give us a better sense of whether he deserves consideration for Bethpage and a home Ryder Cup?
It’s not just about youth. Henley was the No. 11 golfer in the world on DataGolf last season yet didn’t even sniff Ryder Cup consideration. He’s a 35-year-old beacon of consistency that hardly “excites” anyone yet he’s having another good year with three top-10s and nine top-30s. Maybe you’re gun-shy to call on him for a Ryder Cup, so is a Presidents Cup a good trial run? Denny McCarthy has a similar argument.
The Presidents Cup can also be used to test out ideas and gain critical data points on pairings. At the Masters (back when Bhatia making the Presidents Cup was a long shot), Theegala talked about how cool it would be to form an Indian American pairing. “Hopefully we both make that team and make it happen,” he said. Well, it would be foolish to form a Ryder Cup pairing purely on shared cultural background. Presidents Cups can be that place to find out.
For example, Scheffler and best friend Sam Burns went 0-2-1 in three matches together at the 2022 Presidents Cup. Yes, they played better than the results show, but maybe 2023 U.S. captain Zach Johnson should have learned from it before pairing them for a 4&3 loss to open Rome.
Lastly, if Furyk does decide to leave Spieth out, it doesn’t have to be some grand statement. It can just mean he takes a year off. We know exactly what Spieth is when wearing the red, white and blue — when healthy. It’s why he has 19 wins between the two cups. Go mend your wrist, regain your form, and if you’re playing good golf by August 2025, you’re a guaranteed pick.
The one thing the U.S. has that the Europeans don’t is another cup between each Ryder Cup. Don’t treat it as another cup. Let it mean something.
(Top photo: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
