Another player clinched his spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team with one week remaining in automatic qualifying.
With his playoff loss at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, J.J. Spaun still earned enough points to secure his spot alongside Scottie Scheffler on his first Ryder Cup team. Spaun’s spot was all-but certain anyway after his U.S. Open victory in June.
The top 6 after this week’s BMW Championship, a 50-man playoff event at Caves Valley in Maryland, will be locked onto the team. Players earn one point per $1,000 earned, with a $20 million purse this week.
Those would-be qualifiers, as of now, are Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau (unable to add to his point total this week) and Harris English.
Here is the rest of the top 15, in order, with only slight movement among the contenders: No. 7 Justin Thomas, No. 8 Collin Morikawa, No. 9 Ben Griffin, No. 10 Keegan Bradley, No. 11 Maverick McNealy, No. 12 Andrew Novak, No. 13 Brian Harman, No. 14 Cameron Young and No. 15 Patrick Cantlay.
Griffin, Novak, Young and Cantlay all posted top-10 finishes in the playoff opener in Memphis.
On the European side, two weeks remain for automatic qualifying.
Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood are now officially secure to join Luke Donald’s team once again, joining Rory McIlroy. Robert MacIntyre, Tyrrell Hatton and Sepp Straka round out the top 6.
Shane Lowry has fallen out of those automatic spots, but he’s a virtual lock to be at Bethpage Black. Rasmus Hojgaard, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland round out the top 10, respectively.
Matt Fitzpatrick’s streak of four consecutive top-10 finishes ended in Memphis, and he sits at No. 12 in the standings.
Matt Wallace (No. 11), Thomas Detry (No. 13) and Aaron Rai (No. 14) are also in the mix for a spot, with only Detry still alive in the FedExCup playoffs.
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