The real reason why only one LIV Golf player is contending in the Ryder Cup this month has come to light. Five- time major champion Brooks Koepka will be the only LIV Golf League player teeing it up at Marco Simone in three weeks’ time.
While there was noway any mistrustfulness that European LIV Golf players would not be contending in Luke Donald’s platoon as a result of their star names terminating their enrollments on the DP World Tour, the story was veritably different on Zach Johnson’s United States side.
That’s because unlike the European Ryder Cup platoon which is run by the former European Tour, the United States Ryder Cup platoon is run by the PGA of America and not the PGA Tour. This gave Johnson free reign to pick and choose whoever he wanted from LIV Golf. The PGA Tour has still suspended its members who have chosen to play on the Saudi- bankrolled LIV Golf League.
But according to an interview Johnson gave with AP News following his six picks, the decision to just select one LIV Golf star in Koepka was ultimately down to the views of six of his players.
In particular, his six automatic players in Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele.
They supposedly all told Johnson to get Koepka in the platoon as the sole representative from LIV Golf.
Team USA could have chosen the likes of LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, the ultimate who went 5- 0 last time out at Whistling woe in 2021.
But there were putatively no calls for either of those two players, or the likes of Patrick Reed and Talor Gooch. It was solely Koepka, who captured his third US PGA title before this season. Captain Johnson told AP News
“The only thing that was said about Brooks with the guys — specifically the top six that made the team on their own merit — was, ’We want Brooks Koepka to play for Team USA.'”
That was thus the main reason why Johnson decided to name Koepka as one of this six picks in the platoon. previous to making his picks, Johnson revealed in an interview the week before that he’d further than likely rebuff LIV Golf players.
But Johnson ended up picking one LIV Golf player in Koepka, and also the other five were PGA Tour players. They were Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Sam Burns.
It remains to be seen whether Johnson would have picked Koepka had the six automatics not been so oral about Koepka making the side, but either way, it clearly helped the former WorldNo. 1 punch his ticket to Rome. Was Johnson right to only pick Koepka from LIV Golf or did others earn a place in the platoon? Partake your studies and commentary over on the GolfMagic social media channels.