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The US Ryder Cup team is complete and ready to take on Europe at Whistling Straits later this month.
US captain Steve Stricker has filled out his 12-man team with six picks for the match with Padraig Harrington’s side.
They are three-time major champion Jordan Spieth; 2018 Ryder Cup star Tony Finay; and rookies Xander Schauffele, Daniel Berger, Harris English and Scottie Scheffler.
They join automatic qualifiers Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay in Stricker’s side.
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There is no place in Stricker’s line-up for recent US Ryder Cup talisman Patrick Reed, who was recently hospitalised with pneumonia, nor the reigning US PGA champion Phil Mickelson.
Stricker’s picks bring the total number of rookies on the American team to six.
It’s a youthful team, too, with 37-year-old Dustin Johnson the oldest player on the side.
Berger,
28, gained valuable
matchplay experience in 2017, when he played for Stricker
and went 2-1 in the Presidents Cup. He is coming
off top-10 finishes in the season’s final two major championships, the
US Open (T7) and Open Championship (T8).
English, 32, earned the nod from the captain after a strong 2021 campaign,
during which he won twice (2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions,
Travelers Championship) to double his career victory total. He will be
playing in his first team competition since the 2011 Walker Cup.
Finau,
31, returns to the US team for the second time after Jim Furyk made
him a captain’s selection in 2018, when he went 2-1-0 at Le Golf National in Paris. He
joins Stricker’s side in top form, having won the Northern Trust
last month in a Monday playoff.
• Matthew rules out third stint as Solheim captain
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The 27-year-old Schauffele, meantime, becomes
the first Olympic gold medallist to represent America in the Ryder Cup.
He went
3-2-0 in the 2019 Presidents Cup, when his singles victory over Adam
Scott helped fuel America’s comeback victory in Australia.
Scheffler, 25,
has shown great consistency in golf’s biggest events, finishing top
eight or better in four of his five major starts dating to
2020. He represented the victorious United States squad in the 2017
Walker Cup.
Spieth
will be playing in his fourth consecutive Ryder Cup, the longest
current streak among the American contingent. The 28-year-old’s, whose resurgent 2021 season featured a
victory at the Valero Texas Open, has a career Ryder Cup record of
7-5-2, including five wins from six fourball matches.
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