Last minute moves for U.S. Ryder Cup Team at BMW Championship

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – One of Max Homa’s goals entering the FedExCup Playoffs was to qualify for the U.S. Ryder Cup Team on points, no captain’s pick needed.

Mission accomplished. Homa finished in a two-way T5 at the BMW Championship to cement his place inside the top six on the U.S. Team standings, the threshold for automatic qualification.

Homa joins Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman and Xander Schauffele as automatic qualifiers on the U.S. side.

Homa, Clark and Harman will all make their Ryder Cup debut.

“It meant a lot,” Homa said Sunday at Olympia Fields Country Club (North Course), after packing up in preparation for a trip to East Lake for next week’s TOUR Championship, which he’ll begin at No. 6 on the FedExCup standings, six strokes behind Scottie Scheffler in the Starting Strokes format.

“Very excited. Super, super, super excited … I told (U.S. Team Captain) Zach (Johnson) two years ago that I wasn’t going to need a pick, tongue-in-cheek, so it’s very cool. It was a big goal coming into the Playoffs, to catch them and pass them where I didn’t need to get a pick, just for my own peace of mind. So it feels good.”

Homa began the week at No. 6 in the U.S. Team Standings. Schauffele entered the week No. 7, and he moved past Brooks Koepka for the No. 6 spot with a tie for eighth at the BMW Championship.

Homa made his Presidents Cup debut last year at Quail Hollow and thrived, going 4-0-0 and emerging as one of the U.S. Team’s emotional leaders. It was widely expected that he would receive a Ryder Cup captain’s pick if he failed to qualify on points; still, the California native knows that nothing can be expected in life. It’s always best to earn a dream, removing the variables, and Homa has made no secret that playing in a Ryder Cup fits that “dream” label.

“I told Zach last year I was kissing up to him, but then he also said, ‘Well, I'd like to not have to pick you,’ and I said all right, there's my promise, I'll try to get an automatic,” Homa said Friday. “That would be really cool.”

Homa delivered on that promise and is now headed to Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, Italy, as part of the U.S. Team.

Captain Zach Johnson will round out the squad with six captain’s picks, to be made after the TOUR Championship.

The European Team’s six automatic qualifiers (three off the European Points List; three off the World Points List) will be finalized Sept. 3, with European Team Captain Luke Donald to make six captain’s picks shortly thereafter.