Holmes, Fowler, Kuchar added to American team
J.B. Holmes put a fork in Rickie Fowler’s FedExCup Playoffs run Sunday by sinking a 3-foot putt on the 72nd hole in the BMW Championship.
Now they’ll be teammates in three weeks in the Ryder Cup.
Davis Love III added the power of Holmes, the personality and iron play of Fowler and the steady hand of Olympic bronze medalist Matt Kuchar to the U.S. squad Monday when he announced three of his four captain’s picks in a news conference at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., home to the 41st edition of the Ryder Cup from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2.
“These three guys are who we really all wanted,” said Love, who got input from assistant captains Tiger Woods, Tom Lehman, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk, as well as many players already on the team. “We’re really confident in them. … This is a tough decision; there were many great choices. I know this is the 11 we want today. We have another tough decision coming up in two weeks.”
Love will make his fourth and final captain’s pick during halftime of the Sunday night game between the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 25. Ryder Cup week starts the next day.
The three join the eight players who automatically qualified for the team by the end of The Barclays last month. They are Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Jimmy Walker, Brooks Koepka, Brandt Snedeker and Zach Johnson.
Fowler will make his third appearance in the Ryder Cup, having been on the losing side in 2010 and 2014. He is 0-3-5 in the Ryder Cup and can partner with anybody on the team, Love said. The 27-yearold could have locked up one of the eight automatic slots, but a back-nine 41 in the final round of The Barclays last month doomed his chances.
He looked to be a lock for the team earlier this year after he won four times in 19 starts in 2015-16, including victories in the 2015 Players Championship, 2015 Deutsche Bank Championship and 2016 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. But he squandered a two-stroke lead with two holes to play in the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February, eventually losing to Hideki Matsuyama in a playoff. After posting top-10 finishes in his next two starts, Fowler has four top-10s in 17 starts since.
“We found no weaknesses in his game,” Love said of Fowler, who missed advancing to next week’s Tour Championship, the Playoff finale, by less than one point when Holmes made his putt. “He’s such a great teammate. He’s really confident on the big stage. … He plays well all over the world; he travels well. He brings a lot of intangibles to our team.”
Holmes improved his case to be a pick with a tie for fourth Sunday in the BMW Championship. He has played in one Ryder Cup, going 2-0-1 in 2008, the last time the Americans won the event. Holmes, 34, has two top-five finishes in majors in 2016. He tied for fourth in the Masters and finished third in the British Open.
“I was very excited,” Holmes said of get- ting the call from Love. “It’s been one of my main goals all year to get on this team, and to get that call from Davis was just a very exciting moment. Some of my greatest memories in golf was at The Ryder Cup at Valhalla. So just really excited to get back in the Ryder Cup format and get out there and play.”
Holmes said he was thinking too much about making the Ryder Cup, one of the reasons he missed five of seven cuts from the U.S. Open until the start of the Playoffs. With a new mental approach, he’s played much better. His length should be a strength at Hazeltine, a big ballpark that favors the longest hitters in the game.
“He’s so steady; he’s so easy to pair. Got a lot of experience,”‘ Love said. “He’s consistent, and he’s been on a winning Ryder Cup team before in the past.”
Kuchar, 38, will play on his fourth consecutive Ryder Cup team. He hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2014 RBC Heritage but has 21 top-10 finishes in 64 Tour starts since. Kuchar, who is 4-5-2 in the Ryder Cup, won the bronze medal in August in the Rio Olympics, closing with a 63.
He noted Monday that he’s a captain’s pick for the first time rather than automatically earning his spot.
“It stinks to have to be picked,” Kuchar said. “This is my first team I’ve required a pick, and it’s not a pleasant position to be in.
“But I really am thrilled to be part of this. I was part of that team at Medinah. Davis Love, he’s like a brother, like an uncle down here. We love him so much. We have so much respect for him. For me to make this team, I can’t wait to make amends and try to bring the Cup home.”
Europe has won the last three matches and six of the last seven Ryder Cups. European captain Darren Clarke finalized his team Aug. 30 with wild-card picks Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Thomas Pieters.
The three joined the nine who qualified for the team on points, including Rory McIlroy, Danny Willett, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, Andy Sullivan, Chris Wood, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Rafa Cabrera Bello.