All is quiet now on the Ryder Cup front. After weeks and months of near-constant discourse about captains, captain’s picks, playing captains, even vice captains, it’s suddenly . . . kinda quiet. But there are just 24 days until the opening session of foursomes at Bethpage Black, and those days won’t go unused.
In fact, both teams will be busy — and, in the case of the Americans, busier than usual.
While many U.S. players are enjoying some time away from competition, at least 10 of them will tee it up in Napa next week at the Procore Championship. Often an event strictly for players lower down the FedEx Cup Fall points list, heavy hitters will be bumping a number of those lower-ranked players out of the field as they come together for some pre-Cup bonding.
Almost every American is spoken for, with the following players in the field: Scottie Scheffler, Russell Henley, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas, Harris English, J.J. Spaun, Sam Burns, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin and Cameron Young. Xander Schauffele is the lone man who is eligible by not yet in the field; his involvement (or not) will come into focus in the coming days. As a LIV golfer, Bryson DeChambeau is not eligible to enter the field, but he will be in Napa for any team-related activities.
There are also three vice captains who will be in the field — in addition, of course, to Bradley being on-site — so look for their placement on the tee sheet as well. It would not be surprising to see two teammates grouped alongside one of Brandt Snedeker, Webb Simpson and Gary Woodland. (Snedeker also will be looking to sharpen his own captaincy acumen as he preps for his role as the man in charge of the U.S. side at next year’s Presidents Cup.)
Some 5,000 miles away — in an equally bougie locale — Team Europe also is showing out. Nearly the entire team will be on-site at the BMW PGA Championship, the premier event on the DP World Tour schedule, held at Wentworth Club just outside London. It’ll be a packed field, with a handful of non-Ryder Cuppers from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf taking part, including Corey Conners, Hideki Matsuyama, Wyndham Clark, Brooks Koepka, Billy Horschel and Patrick Reed.
Of the Ryder Cuppers, Rory McIlroy will have the shortest commute; he’s been building a home in the vicinity. Sepp Straka is the only Euro teammate not yet in the field, but he is tending to his family. Luke Donald acknowledged that “everything’s okay” with Straka, but “him and his wife welcomed their baby a few weeks ago prematurely.”
Straka’s absence will be filled by a couple captains. Vice captain Francesco Molinari will be teeing it up at Wentworth, as will Donald himself. Both are actually paired together this week at the Irish Open. Francesco’s brother, Edoardo, provides the analytical brains behind Team Europe, and he was out walking a practice round with Lowry Wednesday in Ireland.
The third Euro vice captain in the field at Wentworth is the last one named: Sweden’s Alex Noren, who admitted he was surprised to earn that honor. “It was a big shock when I found out; I didn’t expect it at all,” Noren told the Associated Press. “I want to bring a good attitude to the team room. Bring some knowledge. I’ve been in this game a long time.”
Noren’s surprise, while endearing, speaks to an unspoken element of these two quasi-team camps: the field is also filled by Ryder Cup snubs. Donald made his final selections public on Labor Day, just ahead of facing a lot of those snubbed players in person.
Noren, for example, made a late push to be on the team, winning the British Masters two weeks ago. Nicolai Hojgaard, who was on the 2023 team in Rome, has been playing better recently than his now-Ryder Cupper brother, Rasmus. After being snubbed, Sergio Garcia didn’t want to be close to any pre-Ryder Cup team mingling, so he WD’d from this week’s Irish Open.
Donald’s fellow countrymen, Harry Hall, Marco Penge and Aaron Rai all made valiant runs this summer. (Hall is now ranked 11th in the world, according to DataGolf.) More recently, Matt Wallace was brought to tears after not quite doing enough to make the roster. While there appears to be no bad blood between them and Donald, that crew will no doubt face some of the music, as a team dinner is planned for next week.
Something similar will likely play out for Maverick McNealy who many considered RC-worthy at various points in the year. He will surely note how much Ryder Cup conversation fills the grounds of an event that normally doesn’t receive this attention. (The 2023 Procore had only two Ryder Cuppers in attendance.) The only thing that might soften the burden of those surroundings for McNealy or Novak is the fact that the man who organized it all — the other main snub on the American side — had a chance to book his ticket to Bethpage as a player and passed on the opportunity.
