FedEx Cup winner Billy Horschel will be conspicuously absent from Ryder Cup

Billy Horschel stalking the fairways with Rory McIlroy over the weekend at the Tour Championship -- and whipping the butt of the world No. 1 on his way to the FedEx Cup title -- must have had Tom Watson shaking his head.

What could have been a marquee singles match to decide the 2014 Ryder Cup in two weeks will not come to pass because the hottest golfer on the planet won’t be making the trip -- and we don’t mean McIlroy, who won three events in a row before the playoffs and wrapped up his spot on Team Euro long ago.

Horschel, passed over as a wild-card pick for the U.S. squad by Capt. Tom two weeks ago in favor of Hunter Mahan, Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley, made the strongest argument yet for delaying captains’ picks until the final putt drops at East Lake.

Sunday’s three-shot win over McIlroy and Jim Furyk put an exclamation mark on an impressive three weeks for the dad-to-be whose wife is slated to give birth to the couple’s first child by the end of the month. Runner-up at the second of four FEC events, the Deutsche Bank Championship, to Chris Kirk (another would-be Cup rookie who has Monday-morning quarterbacks second-guessing Watson’s choices), Horschel put the next two tourneys in the win column and Watson’s back against the wall.

Rather than having the excitable and exciting Horschel revving up the boys with his animated play, Watson chose one guy ineligible for the Tour Championship (Bradley) along with two who tied for 23rd in the 29-player East Lake field (Simpson and Mahan).

In Watson’s defense, Horschel’s only two top-10 finishes between June and September were hardly worthy of Ryder Cup consideration. Had he postponed until Sunday to make his selections, however, things would have been different.

But the American skipper is nothing if not a self-righteous defender of tradition (just ask Gary McCord about Watson’s role in getting him tossed from Masters coverage after he dared to diss the greens at Augusta). So while he had the option of waiting to tap his three add-on players, he stuck with the plan and announced on Sept. 2.

Not a fan of Watson’s choices was two-time major winner turned analyst extraordinaire Johnny Miller, who voiced concerns of other U.S. Ryder Cup boosters.

“I would have liked to have seen more younger guys have a chance, especially Chris Kirk,” Miller told the San Jose Mercury News before Horschel’s tour de force at East Lake. “I thought he deserved to be on the team. The team is good, but I like young blood.”

The golfer in question let Watson completely off the hook.

“Even with this extra win, I still don’t feel like I deserve to be on the team,” Horschel told reporters after his East Lake victory. “I haven’t played good enough this year. I haven’t played good enough over a two‑year period to be on the team, and I understand that. I’m not upset with that. I’m over it. I’ve been over it since the picks were made at Deutsche Bank, and I’m fully supportive of the U.S. team and everyone else.”

Also fully supportive of the timing of Watson’s picks was Horschel’s 36-hole playing partner.

“There’s a few guys I’m glad I’m not going to see at Gleneagles,” McIlroy said on Sunday after getting a healthy dose of the newly crowned FedEx Cup champion. “Him [Horschel], Ryan Palmer [seventh at East Lake], Chris Kirk [T4 last week]. There’s a few guys who are playing well who aren’t on this U.S. team that obviously had a great chance to make it.”

The tune McIlroy was whistling was probably not music to Tom Watson’s ears.