With the 2025 Ryder Cup fast approaching, The Don brings us his predicted 12 man lineups for both Team USA and Team Europe #golf #rydercup #teamusa #teameurope #scottiescheffler #rorymcilroy #jonrahm #keeganbradley #brysondechambeau #xanderschauffele #tommyfleetwood
The RDER Cup 2025 is not far away. Just over uh six weeks to go in Beth Page, United States. Both captains can uh pick six wild card picks and six players automatically qualify. Time of recording, six players haven’t all qualified automatically. Um but I will get into picking them teams now. Now starting with team USA um six players currently in the top six of the ranking um for the team USA. Scottish Sheffller is obviously already qualified uh two major wins this year BGA and the Open. The best player in the world. He is going to be the talisman for United States. Now rankings two three four five I think they will remain in the top six and qualify dramatically. That is Yander Sheffle. Um, you know, fantastic year last year, not as good this year, but consistent. I think he has got a victory on tour. Please correct me if I’m wrong. JJ Spawn, um, he won the, uh, US Open. Uh, to be fair, breakout year for him. He has got been consistent, but to get that massive win, that major he deserves, I believe this will be his first appearance in the Ryder Cup. Russell Henley, um, you know, very solid year, a win early on in the season. uh continues to write climb the rankings and he deserves his spot and he will make the team. I can’t see him climbing out of the team. Brighton Shambo another one that will basically all but there he does represent Liver golf. He has won a few Thomas in Liver golf this year and he did have an opportunity to win the Masters and he did win the US Open last year. So another good player not my favorite player but he will definitely be in the team. Now, the last spot, it’s still very much all to play for between Harris English and Justin Thomas. To be fair, I think both players will get picked regardless. Um, but I just think Josh Thomas might steal it. He’s not many points behind. He’s only just came out of the top six time of recording. I think he’ll get it back in time and he will be the uh sixth player. Um, like I said, Justin Thomas has hit a bit of form this year. He has won on tour, couple of decent performances, couple of seconds, back to where he was 3, four years ago. And I think he uh I think he missed out last time, but he he definitely will be there regardless. And I think he would just nick that last automatic spot. Now, the six wide cards. Now, I’m going to start with Harris English, who I think will miss out. He’s currently in the spot, but I think he’ll miss out. I think he’ll be a wild card anyway. He He’s been a very solid player for a long time. He climbs. He’s one of those players that doesn’t win a lot, but he just he’s consistent and he climbs the rankings and then he’ll get that big win. Now, he hasn’t won a major. I don’t think he’s played at Ryder Cup. This will be a rookie for him, but he’s he’s too high in the rankings to be at Nord. And I think he will go he will be picked now with the other five. It’s very interesting. I’m going to pick three more players in the top 12 now. I think Ben Griffin is is a is a lock for me. you know, breakout year, two wins on tour, first two wins, you know, wins on BJ tour this year. Um, playing really good golf. So, he has been in contention parts of majors this year. And I think, yes, he’s another rookie, but I think he’ll get picked and he’ll get get added to the team. Colin Marakawa, you know, he’s in the top 12 as well. There’s no reason why he won’t get picked. I think he’s currently eight in the rankings. He’s definitely going to be picked by Keegan Bradley. Um, we know what he can do. Again, he hasn’t played as well. maybe as he has for previous years, but he’s been consistent and he he’ll get his opportunity to uh play again for the United States. And Brian Harmon, another player that is just in the top 12, I believe. Um he will get picked. Um there’s no reason why he won’t get picked. You know, he had a decent bit of form in the last few months. You know, he did win a major a couple of years ago. um hasn’t won too much since, but I believe he did win last year, but again, consistency, that’s what gets you in these rankings, and I think he will join the team. Now, unfortunately, I I’m going to go for two wild cards picks in the sense where they’re outside of top 12. This means that the captain, who by the way is Keegan Bradley, who is currently 10th in the rankings, he has said that he won’t pick himself. He will only play if he automatically qualifies, which he has to win a few tournaments to do that, I believe. I’m not sure if it’s still an opportunity. He says he won’t pick himself as a playinger. So, I don’t think he’ll make it. And I don’t think McNeely will make it only because there’s a few rookies I believe already. He is not the name that they want. They want experience. And there’s two players that I think will join. Uh first off is Patrick Canle. He’s just outside the top 12. It makes complete sense to pick him. He’s played in the World Cup before. He’s got a really good long game. Course will suit him and he’s top 30 player. The other one, he’s quite far down the rankings of the World Cup rankings, but he’s shown a bit of form in the last few months. Three time major winner is Jordan Stef. I think he’s the best of the big names that are not near the top 20. There’s a lot of big names that are not there this year. A lot of them play live golf and some of them playing the main hall. John Spe isn’t right near it, but I think he’s near enough to get the attention with a bit of form. I think you know with a few rookies and maybe unexperienced players, he’ll join the team. So team USA will be Scottish Sheffle, Alexander, JJ Spawn, Russell Henley, Bryson Dasha, Justin Thomas, Harris English, Ben Griffin, Colin Maracawa, Brian Harmon, Patrick Canle, and Jordan Spe. Now, let’s go to the European side of it. Now, it’s to team Europe, the visiting team this year. Not one in America for a few years. They will be outsiders, but they’ve got plenty of quality, plenty of major winners, and top 25 players in the world. Um, this year, Luke Donald will have six wild card picks. The top six in the European Rally Cup ranking will automatically qualify. And again, this is, as I’ve mentioned already, time of recording, we’re the end of July. So, I’m going to pick go through the six plays that will qualify automatically. Um, and then go through the six wild card predictions. So, time of recording, I believe some of these might be confirmed. I am looking at the six, they’re there now, and I think that they won’t change. So, Rory Maroy, obviously, he’s going to be the first player number one. We know what he’s done this year, masters champion. Tommy Fleetwood, we know what he’s done. you know, still can’t win in Europe in America, but he’s had a couple of really good finishes. Should have won the Travis Championship, but got back into the top 30 after a few, you know, 2024 wasn’t his best year, but he has got back the way where he belongs, but he just needs to win. But when it comes to Ri Cup, he’s an asset. Robert McIntyre continues to get better. Some good performances, especially in the US Open, won a few times on tour in the in America recent in the last year. he’ll get his spot. Tiro Hatton, he’s a live player, but he has won on the European tour this year, DP World Tour, and he he also won at the end of last year, so twice in the in the calendar year. Um, so he’s basically a guarantee. Uh, Seth Striker, again, another guarantee. Uh, I think he’s had a couple of wins on the on the PGA tour this year in the top 10 completes. He’ll be there as well. and Shane Lowry, a player that doesn’t win a lot, but he’s one of the most consistent players without winning I’ve ever seen, continues to be consistent. Again, he had a drop off a few years back, but he’s now come back into the reckoning without winning that much to be fair. Um, but he’s he just he’s a consistent player. So, to confirm the six players as of time of recording who I expect to stay in the top six, Rory Maroy, I didn’t say a lot about Rory. You don’t need to know that much about Rory. You know how good he is. He’s going to be talisman. Tommy Fleetwood, Robert McIntyre, Terrell Hatton, Sev Shaka, and Shane Lowry. Now, who are going to be the four uh the six, sorry, the six players to join them. So, right now, a lot of people would probably predict the same six as me. I try and be as different as possible, but but I can’t see them doing any different. So, four of the six players I’m going to pick are actually in the top 12 of the current ranking. Now, I’ll start off with Victor Hofflin. I’m a big fan of Victor Hofflin. Uh, you know, he went through a tough 2024 after an amazing couple of years, but he has won recently and tour in the last three or four months, and he he nearly won the US Open as well. He was a big big asset last last time out in the RER Cup. He’ll be he’ll be on the plane. He’ll be going. Um, Akbo again, he started to drop off a bit, but had a few couple of really fantastic years. hasn’t progressed as much as we thought he would, but he’s still very young and he’s again he’s an absolute uh top 20 fan of the world. Consistent, doesn’t win as much, but he has won in the last year. So again, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t pick him. Um, and now we’re looking at Justin Rose as the next choice. It’s it’s an obvious choice. He’s in the top 12, Masters runner up, back in the top 25, a decent showing in the open. Um there’s no reason why you wouldn’t pick Justin Rose. Um he won not long ago after a couple of poor years. He lost his form, but he’s back to where he belongs. You know, he’s not young now and I think he’s near the 50 mark. So yeah, fair play to Justin. He’ll be on the plane as well. And then this is where it gets interesting. Um Ramos Hogard, not Nikolai. They are twin brothers. Ramos is currently seventh in the ranking. He’s been a bit more consistent than his brother and his brother actually was the one who played in it last year if you want to give some clarification. I expect him to to be the pick due to the fact where he is in the rankings and I don’t think there’s enough enough star power to take him out. I don’t see why his brother would go over him. He’s had a better more consistent year. So I expect him to be the fourth player out the top 12 to join the top six. So that means there’s two players that are not currently in the top 12 that I think will get picked. So play the other players, you know, there’s a lot of players that I could talk about. Matt Wallace, uh, who is in the top 12, Thomas is in the top 12. I think they miss out. I think Aaron Ry also misses out even though he’s had a fantastic couple of years. These two players, I think, is just experience major winners in the team last time. One of them shown a bit of form and that first person’s Max Fit Patrick. He’s had a couple of poor years after winning the major the US Open a few years back 2021 or 2022 one of them years anyway but he’s had a couple of decent performances in majors this year climbing the rankings he’s climbing the European Rder Cup ranking so I expect him to be in the team and the other one is John Ram he is live golf he hasn’t really done anything on the DP world tour he’s in the top 20 couple of decent performances in major as well as Patrick Patrick he’s won a few times on live tour I believe so why would not pick them two players starting to get some form proven in your other cup provening in top golf level so I expect them to to join the team and the team is going to be Maroy Fleetwood McIntyre Straa Hatton Lowry Hogard Rose Hofflin Edber Fitzpatrick and John Ram will this team beat America we will Okay.
