US Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker is to hand-pick half of his team for the 2020 Ryder Cup matches which are scheduled to be played from September 25-27 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
Stricker had previously only had four wildcards options at his disposal, with the remaining eight slots decided on the FedEx Cup standings, but following the cancellation of 11 PGA Tour events due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the US captain feels that he won’t have enough current form on which to base his decision making.
All points earned by players from the beginning of the qualifying process in 2019 will still stand, while the final qualifying event will be the second FedEx Cup Playoff event, the BMW Championship on August 30, assuming all such events and the 2020 Ryder Cup take place as currently scheduled. The top six in the points list will be automatically selected, while the six wildcard choices will be announced Stricker on September 2 or 3.
The six players currently in the top six of the US points list are Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Gary Woodland, Xander Schauffele and Webb Simpson.
“With all the various changes to the 2020 schedule, it quickly became apparent that we would need to amend our selection criteria,” said Stricker. “After many deliberate discussions, we collectively agreed that a smaller sampling of 2020 events — including just one major championship — would justify a one-week extension of the qualification window and an increase in the number of captain’s selections from four to six. These changes were sparked by circumstance, but conceived with integrity in mind. In the end, we believe they will allow us to put our best team together to compete at Whistling Straits in September.”
European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington has so far kept his qualification criteria unchanged.