Masters upset sends Ryder Cup chatter into overdrive: Part two

Following on from last week’s post looking at the potential make-up on Team Europe for the Ryder Cup, this post looks at the US Team. While a long way off, if the US Team was announced today, its top eight players would be:

1. Jordan Spieth
2. Dustin Johnson
3. Bubba Watson
4. Brandt Snedeker
5. Zach Johnson
6. Rickie Fowler
7. Phil Mickelson
8. J.B. Holmes

On first glance, that is a lot (A LOT) of Ryder Cup experience. Although, in recent years, none of it successful. However, looking at that alone would be doing those players an injustice. In fact, only one player in the current top eight for the U.S. has not recorded a victory in the past two seasons to this point. That would be Phil Mickelson – a five-time major champion with 42 career PGA Tour victories and the player who has made more appearances than anyone in U.S. Ryder Cup history. Definitely a guy you would want on your side.

Spieth is already a shoo-in. OK, he blew-up a bit as the Masters, but in all honesty, he should have walked away with the title where he had a five-shot Masters lead with nine holes to play. In fact, it would be hard to argue with any of the rest of that list.

That leaves the four Captain’s Picks. Davis Love III has the likes of Patrick Reed who was the brightest star for the U.S. in last time out. Elsewhere, rising stars Brooks Koepka and Bill Haas will come into contention. As will Ryder Cup veterans Jason Dufner, Matt Kuchar and Jimmy Walker, among a host of others who have won on Tour recently.

We were pretty confident last week when looking at Team Europe. Although, looking at the potential USA Team has given us a reality check - it’s very strong. Davis Love III will be pretty happy with his ‘squad’ and, with home advantage, will be confident of getting a USA win on the trophy.

Either way, we cannot wait for this to start in September.