ATLANTA — Ahead of this week’s Tour Championship, Scottie Scheffler and Brian Harman pledged their support for Brooks Koepka to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
Scottie Scheffler, Brian Harman vocal in support of Brooks Koepka’s U.S. Ryder Cup spot
Scheffler and Harman spoke to the media ahead of the Tour Championship, as both players supported having Koepka on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
“I think he would be a pretty good addition to the team,” Harman said Wednesday.
“I’m not totally familiar with his record in Ryder Cups, but the experience would certainly help, especially considering there’s probably going to be a fair amount of rookies over there.”
Koepka has played in three Ryder Cups and has an overall record of 6-5-1. He helped the Americans win in 2016 and 2021.
“If he played one tournament on [the PGA Tour], I think he probably would have been on the team [automatically],” Scheffler said. “He was 30 points shy? Which is, I think, the equivalent of $30,000 throughout the year.”
Since Koepka now plays with LIV Golf, he could only earn Ryder Cup points at major championships. The PGA of America, which facilitates the bi-annual competition, did not allow players to earn points in LIV Golf events.
But Koepka dominated Oak Hill en route to winning the PGA Championship, his fifth career major title. He also finished second to Jon Rahm at Augusta National in April, showing he has been one of the best players in the world in 2023. He earned 6,300 points in Rochester while obtaining 2,391 points at The Masters.
His win in Western New York vaulted him up the U.S. standings, as he sat in the top six for most of the season.
Yet, players raced by Koepka, especially in the FedEx Cup playoffs, as the PGA Tour’s final three events award a plethora of points.
Those who finished in the top six of the standings after the BMW Championship automatically qualified for the American team, and because the leaderboard fell a certain way in Chicago, Koepka was bumped down to seventh.
He now must rely on a captain’s pick from Zach Johnson to make the team.
“[Koepka], I mean, he’s right there,” Harman added. “The goal of the Ryder Cup is to win, so whoever [Johnson] thinks that can help us win the Ryder Cup I think needs to be on the team.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
