VIRGINIA WATER, England – Davis Love III won’t name his captain’s picks for this year’s U.S. Presidents Cup team until early Wednesday, but given the current professional landscape and conventional wisdom, it seems unlikely he’ll reach far for his picks.
Nos. 1 through 6 on the final U.S. points list – Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau, respectively – automatically qualified for this year’s team and Will Zalatoris, No. 7 on the points list, has withdrawn from the event with an injury.
Nos. 8 Jordan Spieth, 9 Collin Morikawa, 10 Max Homa, 11 Billy Billy Horschel and 12 Cameron Young would be next for Love, and they all appear to be logical choices. That would be significant for Horschel, who is looking to play on his first U.S. team as a professional.
“When I think about making a team it puts a smile on my face, but at 35 years old and being on Tour for 13 years and thinking about the close calls, I just think that’s really cool,” Horschel said Tuesday at the BMW PGA Championship. “It’s not finally, finally, finally.
“If I get there it will hit me. To finally be able to experience it. To check that box off, it would have haunted me to end my PGA Tour career without it happening.”
Love’s final pick could create some uncertainty. The next three players on the points list are Tom Hoge, J.T. Poston and Kevin Kisner, with Kisner being the likely final pick given his success in the WGC-Dell Match Play and his performance at the 2017 Presidents Cup.
International captain Trevor Immelman is scheduled to name his captain’s Tuesday morning.
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