SI

Six U.S. Ryder Cup Team Members Set After BMW; Brooks Koepka Not Among Them

At the conclusion of the BMW Championship, the first six players on the U.S. Ryder Cup team have been determined.

Gabrielle Herzig

Six U.S. Ryder Cup Team Members Set After BMW; Brooks Koepka Not Among Them
Six U.S. Ryder Cup Team Members Set After BMW; Brooks Koepka Not Among Them /

The first six automatic qualifiers for the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup team have been determined.

As of the conclusion of the BMW Championship—won by Viktor Hovland—the six players who punched their tickets to Rome through the U.S. Ryder Cup standings list are as follows:

1. Scottie Scheffler

2. Wyndham Clark

3. Brian Harman

4. Patrick Cantlay

5. Max Homa

6. Xander Schauffele

Homa and Schauffele both needed strong finishes at Olympia Fields to secure their spots on the U.S. team and both got exactly that. Schauffele finished T8 with a 3-under 67 on Sunday, while Homa finished T5 with a final-round 68.

Their movement up the standings notably triggered a downward shift for one major champion: Brooks Koepka, who was not in the field at the BMW due to his LIV Golf membership.

Prior to the Chicago playoff event, the top six spots were held by the following players, with Xander Schauffele on the outside looking in at No. 7.

1. Scottie Scheffler

2. Wyndham Clark

3. Patrick Cantlay

4. Brian Harman

5. Brooks Koepka

6. Max Homa

Scheffler, Clark and Cantlay were locked into the automatic qualifying positions ahead of this week’s FedEx Cup playoff event, but the remaining three spots all came down to Sunday’s final round in Chicago. 

Therefore, the PGA champion is no longer an automatic selection for the U.S. team, falling to No. 7 in the standings.

Koepka’s LIV status meant that he could only earn U.S. Ryder Cup points at the four major championships in 2023, in which he placed T2, T17 and T64 along with his PGA Championship victory. Ryder Cup points are not available at LIV events.

Koepka will now rely on a captain’s pick from Zach Johnson to compete against Team Europe at Marco Simone Golf Club come September. Johnson will announce his at-large bids on Tuesday, Aug. 29, following next week’s Tour Championship. 

According to golf rankings guru “Nosferatu” on Twitter, the final projections for the U.S. Ryder Cup standings are as follows:

That means that the following list of players will hope for a captain’s pick from Johnson next week. 

7. Brooks Koepka

8. Jordan Spieth

9. Cameron Young

10. Collin Morikawa

11. Keegan Bradley

12. Sam Burns

13. Rickie Fowler

14. Denny McCarthy

15. Justin Thomas

16. Lucas Glover

Spieth, Morikawa, Bradley, Burns, Fowler, McCarthy and Glover will all head to East Lake to compete for the FedEx Cup at the Tour Championship next week. 

As a LIV member, Koepka will not be in the field. Thomas did not advance to the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs this season, and Young finished at No. 42 after this week’s event. Only the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings advance to East Lake. 

Published
Gabrielle Herzig
GABRIELLE HERZIG

Gabrielle Herzig is a Breaking and Trending News writer for Sports Illustrated Golf. Previously, she worked as a Golf Digest Contributing Editor, an NBC Sports Digital Editorial Intern, and a Production Runner for FOX Sports at the site of the 2018 U.S. Open. Gabrielle graduated as a Politics Major from Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she was a four-year member and senior-year captain of the Pomona-Pitzer women’s golf team. In her junior year, Gabrielle studied abroad in Scotland for three months, where she explored the Home of Golf by joining the Edinburgh University Golf Club.

Home/Golf