Bad Takes Week: Fans Should Have a Vote for U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup Teams

The Ryder Cup is one of golf's most passionate events, and John Schwarb writes that fans' passion should be rewarded with a vote for one player who wears the red, white and blue.

If you had a vote for last year's Ryder Cup team, would Justin Thomas have been on it? / Adam Cairns-Imagn Images

As the pro golf world has spun off its axis the last three years, do you feel left behind as a fan? That your investments in time and/or money aren’t appreciated by the powers running the sport?

We hear you. And we say it’s time you have a say—and even better, a vote.  

Our latest Bad Takes Week fix for golf bestows upon fans the right to vote for the final player on U.S. Ryder and Presidents Cup teams. These teams are playing in our colors for our country, so the citizens should have a say. 

MORE FROM BAD TAKES WEEK: A reimagined Tour Championship | Uniting the U.S. Opens | LIV Golf's rogue team

Golf fans and pundits love to pick apart these teams like they’re fantasy football rosters. For both 12-man U.S. teams in the Ryder and Presidents Cups, a points list sets six automatic qualifiers and the captain picks the other six players, leaving plenty to debate.

He picked who?

How could he leave off that guy?

Most of the arguments are around the final spot, and that’s where you come in. It’s your call. 

Here’s how it will work: for the Ryder Cup, the U.S. captain makes five picks, then the top five remaining names on the points list will be placed on an online ballot for fans to vote one player onto the team on a Cup Election Day.  

Last year, Zach Johnson chose Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, with JT being the lightning-rod pick. Thomas was 15th on the points list and coming off a poor season which included failing to make the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs, but Johnson said he couldn’t be left off the team (later, Netflix’s Full Swing laid bare a Ryder Cup “boys club” that showed the captain’s favoritism for Thomas, Spieth and Fowler). 

Passed over were Cameron Young (ninth in points), Keegan Bradley (11th), Denny McCarthy (14th) and Lucas Glover (16th but with two wins within a month before the picks). 

On Cup Election Day, those four players plus Thomas would comprise the fan ballot and the choice would be yours. Johnson made those captain’s picks on a Monday, and our fan voting would take place the very next day: Cup Election Day. We trust that the PGA of America could handle this election online during business hours (the organization runs online ticket lotteries, though that’s a bit of a sore spot right now), and the results could be revealed in prime time Tuesday night on social channels, another media bump for the event. 

For this year’s U.S. Presidents Cup team, captain Jim Furyk went straight down the points list for his six captain’s picks, but in our format Max Homa, 12th in points, would have instead gone on the ballot. The next four in points would have also been included: Chris Kirk, Akshay Bhatia, Eric Cole and McCarthy (again!). 

Also on this ballot would have been the top two Americans from the 2024 LIV Golf points list: Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. The Presidents Cup is a PGA Tour-owned event which bars LIV players in word (they’re not Tour members) and deed (their efforts in majors don’t factor on the points list, unlike the Ryder Cup), but our ballot puts the choice in your hands and includes LIV. Think the reigning U.S. Open champion should have been on the team? That’s not for the PGA Tour to say anymore. We also trust the Tour to run this election (it regularly sends out online surveys to fans) and use its own Cup Election Day to build interest. (We also think Bryson winning would have been a hoot, but we digress. We are neutral bystanders in this enterprise, honest.)

However, this is Bad Takes Week and we know why this concept is as likely to happen as $100 BOGO tickets for future Ryder Cups. You’ve seen how overcooked these “exhibitions” are, from the opening ceremonies to matching outfits for wives/girlfriends to the number of vice captains in logoed golf carts. Heaven forbid one variable is unscripted and left to chance, and that’s what a public vote would do. 

But again, we’re talking about one player on a 12-man team. The captain still makes the lineups and often gives the perceived “12th man” fewer starts than the top players. In reality, a 12th man doesn’t win or lose a Cup himself.

Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be allowed to decide who that man is.