Crooked Stick, Carmel, IN … Double USA Ryder Cup star Rickie Fowler summed it up in one word how he is feeling about the likelihood of being afforded a Hazeltine ‘wildcard’ pick – ‘Anxious’.
Fowler made his Ryder Cup debut in 2010 and was a member also of the 2014 USA side but with just three top-10s since he was T4th in May’s Wells Fargo Championship there’s many pundits believing Fowler could be left out of the 2016 USA team.
Davis Love 111 will announce three of his four picks on Monday morning – 11am Chaska, Minnesota time – and then his final pick on Sunday 25th September, and strangely at half-time in the Sunday Night NFL match from Dallas, Texas between the Cowboys -v- Chicago Bears.
But here in their own words is the views of four of upwards of some 11 Americans who could be handed a Hazeltine pick.
Bubba Watson
(No. 9 on the USA Team points table and missing out by a spot in automatically qualifying)
“The Ryder Cup is very much on my mind. I want to play on the Ryder Cup. My whole goal this year was the Ryder Cup and the Olympics. That’s all I cared about the whole year was making those two events. I didn’t care how I did it, as long as I made those events. And I got in the Olympics, so I got one more to go, I guess.
Q. Had much conversation with Davis?
BUBBA WATSON: Nope, haven’t talked to him at all.
Q. When was the last time you talked to him?
BUBBA WATSON: I saw him at — I think he didn’t play or — he was at Akron for some reason. I saw him at Akron. So I talked to him there.
Q. Do you remain optimistic that you’ll get a call from him?
BUBBA WATSON: Well, you know, I got two more days to impress or, hopefully, he looks at World Rankings and sees I’m pretty decent, so.
Q. Do you feel like you impressed at all the last couple months?
BUBBA WATSON: Well always, because I told you my goals. It’s like if your whole goal was to win, you’re going to press to try to win. My whole goal was to make the Olympics. I made that and now, as soon as the Olympics was over, I was trying to make the Ryder Cup. So it’s golf, we all press, it’s just who can deal with it the best.
J B Holmes
(No. 10 on the USA Team points table)
Has the Ryder Cup been on your mind at all?
JB HOLMES: It was in the prior weeks. I think that I was focusing on it too much, because the last few weeks I’ve been able to kind of refocus on what I usually focus on and I’ve let it go. Obviously, it’s in the back of my mind, I definitely really want to make the team, but it’s out of my hands now, so all I can do is just go out and play golf and do the best I can.
Q. In 2008 when you were a pick. Had you had talks with anybody from the team or Azinger and did you have a feeling that you might get picked, because you were looking ranked like 50th in the world at the time?
JB HOLMES: Yeah, I was like 16th or something I think on the Ryder Cup points.
Rickie Fowler
(No. 11 on the USA Team points table)
Q. With a couple of days to go before Davis makes his picks how would you describe how you feel – optimistic or anxious?
RICKIE FOWLER: I’m anxious and that’s clearly showing in my golf as I have had so many putts that have either lipped-out or just stop topside behind the hole, and knowing on other days when you are playing well they would drop.
Q. Do you feel as though you’re done enough to get a pick?
RICKIE FOWLER: “Um! Lucky it’s not up to me. I have definitely put forward the effort and it’s not the golf I would like to have played these last few weeks but it’s something I don’t want to miss out on, and it’s not fun being in a situation where you are having to rely on being picked. I’ve been there before in 2010 when I was picked as a rookie. But then I’ve done what I can do and we’ll now see.”
Q. You’ve played a lot of tournaments but how many do you think you can play in a row without making mistakes?
RICKIE FOWLER: Three is a really good number. Four in a row is tough but to play five in a row is very tough. I’m not saying you can’t go and play well as guys have won in the 10th, 11th or 12th week in a row. So that’s no means as an excuse but I am fatigued as it’s tough to grind it out mentally week-in and week-out. I’ve played a number of weeks in a row now but then I had one goal in mind going through this stretch and that was so that I would be on the Ryder Cup team. If that goal was not around I would not have played five in a row, and I would not have been competing in Greensboro. So up until this stretch I had not played five in a row since my rookie season. And I know I am fatigued as you start making little mistakes, dumb mistakes and I begin to question myself why did I let that happen. But if you are playing well you just cruise along and it’s not mentally taxing. But when those dumb mistakes start creeping in, it’s tough. It’s also tougher when you’re not fresh but as I said it’s not an excuse as every time you tee it up you have to be ready to go.
“But then I feel so close to playing good and that’s what is unfortunate as it is such a fine line but I will be fine.”
Daniel Berger
(No. 16 on the USA Team points table)
Q. How much is the Ryder Cup on your mind?
DANIEL BERGER: Not much at all. Basically zero. I think I would have to win here to get picked, so. Maybe a solid weekend, but zero.
Q. It’s not out of the question though. Guys have obviously come home strong and they remedied the situation with Billy Horschel, so that they could pick someone like that.
DANIEL BERGER: Yeah, I mean, definitely could be an option, but you look at the guys ahead of me, you got Rickie, Bubba, Kuchar, you got J.B. Holmes. I just rattled off four names in three seconds that would probably get picked before me. So it is what it is. I need to play better golf and you don’t have to worry about getting picked.
