The 2026 Presidents Cup at Medinah C.C. is just three weeks away, and U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker announced his final picks for the team on Tuesday night.
While many of the players who did receive captain’s picks were certain locks (with one big exception), other players who may have thought they would be selected for the team got snubbed by Snedeker.
Two players in particular stand out: J.J Spaun and Ben Griffin. Not only did they both play on the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team, but they also performed better there than multiple players who did earn Presidents Cup picks.
Snedeker snubs J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin with 2026 Presidents Cup picks
The top six players in the U.S. Presidents Cup standings following the BMW Championship automatically qualified for the team (Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Sam Burns, Wyndham Clark, Russell Henley and Collin Morikawa).
As captain, Snedeker could then pick any players he wanted to round out the team. But he mostly stuck to the standings. Four of his six captain’s picks ranked from 7-12 in the official standings: Chris Gotterup (7th), Xander Schauffele (9th), Justin Thomas (11th) and Jacob Bridgeman (12th).
But Snedeker chose not to select Griffin (8th) or Spaun (10th), going with U.S. team veteran Patrick Cantlay (13th) and promising young star Jackson Koivun instead. It was especially painful news for Griffin, who was ranked 5th heading into the final qualifying event, the BMW Championship.
Both players’ performances at last year’s Ryder Cup, despite the U.S. team’s loss, throw some doubt on Snedeker’s decision to not include them.
Griffin was only trusted playing two matches at Bethpage Black last fall. But in his brief appearance he still earned 1 point, going 1-1-0. Meanwhile, Presidents Cup automatic qualifiers Henley and Morikawa only earned .5 points each in three Ryder Cup matches apiece. Fellow auto-qualifiers Scheffler and Burns matched Griffin’s single point at the Ryder Cup, but they both played more matches.
While selecting young guns Bridgeman and Koivun is defensible with a nod to developing talent for future teams, Snedeker’s decision to choose Cantlay is more questionable, especially when you look at his 2025 Ryder Cup record.
Cantlay played in five matches at Bethpage Black, more than any other player but Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau, who also played five. But Cantlay performed poorly, going 1-3-1 to earn only 1.5 points.
Spaun, on the other hand, earned 2 points in only three matches (2-1-0). Presidents Cup captain’s pick Justin Thomas earned 2 points as well, but across four matches. In fact, the only U.S. Ryder Cup players who earned more points than Spaun at Bethpage Black were Schauffele and Young. Still, Thomas and Cantlay were awarded captain’s picks, while Spaun was left at home.
It is important to note that Spaun withdrew from the Tour Championship with an injury, so that could have factored into Snedeker’s decision to leave him off the team.
But on Tuesday, Snedeker said the real reason is that there were many players with a “legit chance” at earning picks.
“There’s a lot of guys that were in that conversation. One of the hardest things I think I’ve had to do is look at how deep our team is. There was 15, 16, 17 guys that had a legit chance of doing this,” Snedeker said.
He added that the selection process was “tough” and admitted that “it’s not fair” to the players like Spaun and Griffin who were left off the team.
“There’s a lot of factors that go into these decisions. It’s tough. It’s not fair to a lot of these guys. That’s the way it comes. At the end of the day, the best advice I’ve gotten from every captain I’ve talked to is to trust your gut,” Snedeker explained. “So that’s kind of what I did. I trusted my gut and went with Jackson [Koivun] and Jacob [Bridgeman], as kind of the last two weeks is the way it turned out. Excited for those guys. Excited for those young guys to be out there and go compete.”
The Presidents Cup kicks off at Medinah outside Chicago on September 24th.
