Skepticism, glory await Ryder Cup captain’s picks

Pressure is a privilege, said tennis great Billie Jean King, even as she admitted in her recent memoir that she sometimes felt “over-privileged.” So, too, can Ryder Cup captain’s picks.

There’s pressure, and then there’s pressure.

“I think it built a little bit as I continued to not do well during the week,” Curtis Strange, a pick who drew fire even before the ill-fated 1995 Ryder Cup, told PGATOUR.com in a recent phone call.

Every Ryder Cup brings scrutiny. Captains are judged on their picks, pairings, singles lineup, golf carts, team chemistry and whether or not they win the interview room and the cup itself.

Stars are judged by whether current form measures up to past successes.

Captain’s picks, though, have to fight for their very right to exist, for they are judged on whether they deserved to be there in the first place or should have just watched from the couch at home.

At Rome’s Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, picks will make up half of each team – there were just two each in ’95 – making it less likely that any single pick will invite finger-pointing.

Less likely, but not impossible.

U.S. picks include Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and, most conspicuously, Justin Thomas.

As you might have heard, Thomas will be under a microscope. He hasn’t won since the 2022 PGA Championship, 16 months ago; he shot in the 80s at the U.S. Open and Open Championship, missing the cut at both, and didn’t qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs. All of which sparked fierce debate about whether or not he deserved to go to Rome.

“I thought the whole JT thing was completely – I felt the conversation around it was completely unjustified,” Rory McIlroy said on GOLF’s “Subpar” podcast with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “Because, in my opinion, being a European and knowing that I have to face some of these guys, honestly, there’s other guys on that team that I’d rather face than JT.”

Like Strange in ’95, Thomas was picked for pedigree (two majors among his 15 PGA TOUR wins; a 16-5-3 record in Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup appearances combined) and despite recent form.

“You just don’t leave J.T. at home,” U.S. Captain Zach Johnson said.

Thomas, who recently finished solo fifth at the Fortinet Championship, shrugged off any extra scrutiny.

“I think everybody else on this call that is also a captain's pick can attest that playing in the Ryder Cup is enough pressure in itself,” Thomas said when the picks were announced. “I don't necessarily look at it as I have to play well because I'm a pick. I look at it as I want to play well because it's the Ryder Cup and I'm representing my teammates and my country and my captains.”

That, more or less, is how Strange felt in ’95. He and Fred Couples were picked over Lee Janzen and Jim Gallagher Jr. despite Janzen and Gallagher having each won twice that year. U.S. Captain Lanny Wadkins already had five Ryder Cup rookies and wanted steady hands.

“I like the idea that both these guys have played very, very important shots in the Ryder Cup,” Wadkins said.

Couples had played in three Ryder Cups, Strange four (going 6-9-2), and while Couples would hold up – he earned 2 1/2 points – the criticism of Strange would only intensify. He dropped a squeaker with partner Ben Crenshaw and lost more decisively with Jay Haas, so the chorus of second-guessers was at full pitch by the time he went up against Nick Faldo in Singles.

It went poorly, and he ran his record to 0-3-0.

“I was escaping with band-aids out there,” Strange said after he fanned his 4-iron approach on 17, thinned a 3-iron on 18, and both times failed to get up and down to lose 1 up. “That’s what happens when there’s this much pressure. Your swing breaks down.”

The Americans would go 3-8-1 in Singles, with Strange, Brad Faxon, Haas and Peter Jacobsen, among others, faltering late.

Strange kept muttering, “I can’t believe we lost.”

He also gave the week’s most unsparing self-assessment: “It’s frightening to think how I’m going to feel when I wake up and realize that 11 guys played their hearts out and lost because I didn’t play well.”

Asked if he still feels that way today, he didn’t walk it back.

“I felt pretty bad,” he said. “Now remember, that was two captain’s picks versus six, so half the team is now a captain’s pick. But I felt pretty bad for my teammates, and for Lanny, who was a childhood friend. It was not a good-old-boys-network thing, either. Lanny is the last guy to do that. I’ve never had dinner once in my life with Lanny on TOUR; enough said.”

Strange is hardly the only pick to struggle. Others include Bernhard Langer (0-3-0 at The Belfry in ’89, a tie although Europe retained the trophy) and even Tiger Woods, who went 0-4-0 in Paris in 2018, the first time he failed to win at least a point in eight Ryder Cup appearances.

Picks gone right include Woods (3-1-0) in 2010, a narrow victory for Europe in Wales, and Ian Poulter more than once. He went 4-0-0 in Europe’s 14 1/2-13 1/2 victory at Medinah in 2012.

Asked about playing as a pick, U.S. Vice Captain Stewart Cink, who excelled in ’04, ’06 and 2010, earning a total of 6.5 points, said he always took his selection as a vote of confidence.

“I felt much more relieved as a captain's pick,” Cink said, “and I probably played the best in the Ryder Cup when I was a pick. I just felt like I was – my services were desired to be on the part of the team, and I felt empowered.”

Whether or not Thomas will feel the same way at Marco Simone, where the Americans will try to win on the road for the first time in 30 years, remains to be seen.

Strange, for one, is not worried.

“I was 40 years old, and Justin Thomas is 30, so that in itself is different,” he said. “I was sort of tailing off a little bit. He’s not. He’s going to come out of this and play some great golf.”

The second-guessers will be watching.