Justin Thomas named among six Ryder Cup wildcards for Rome

Thomas has endured the most difficult year of his professional career, tumbling outside the world's top 25, but a strong Ryder Cup record and likely partnership with Jordan Spieth earned him the vote.

Spieth was also named as expected alongside Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Sam Burns, and Brooks Koepka.

Burns was considered by many to be the final name on the team sheet, earning preference over Keegan Bradley, Tony Finau and Lucas Glover, each of them two-time winners during the 2022/23 season.

Thomas though is the selection who has generated the most speculation, having failed to advance to the FedEx Cup Playoffs and signed off his season with 12th place at the Wyndham Championship.

Miserable efforts in the Open and the US Open before that, following a tame defence of his PGA Championship title, had seen the 30-year-old fall down the pecking order, but he remained odds-on with bookmakers.

Thomas was the leading US player on his Ryder Cup debut in Paris and earned four points from five matches at last year's Presidents Cup, going undefeated alongside Spieth.

And with Finau, Bradley and Young failing to force him out of the picture entirely, Thomas earned the trust of captain and friend Johnson, with whom he shared a house at the Open Championship in July.

US Ryder Cup team

Scottie Scheffler

• Age: 27
• Caps: 1 (2021)
• Record: Won 2 Lost 0 Halved 1
• Two years after needing a wild card and being the lowest ranked player on the US team without a PGA Tour win to his name, Scheffler will travel to Rome as the world number one and former Masters champion. Won twice, including the Players Championship, in a remarkably-consistent season and was unbeaten in three matches at Whistling Straits.

Wyndham Clark

• Age: 29
• Caps: 0
• Won his first PGA Tour title in May and followed up a month later by winning the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, holding off Rory McIlroy to win by a single shot. Played in the 2014 Palmer Cup at Walton Heath, halving two matches and losing the other two, one of which was a singles defeat to Jon Rahm.

Brian Harman

• Age: 36
• Caps: 0
• The left-hander had not tasted victory for six years before dominating the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool to land his first major title by six shots. Will make his Ryder Cup debut in Rome but was on the winning Walker Cup team in both 2005 and 2009.

Patrick Cantlay

• Age: 31
• Caps: 1 (2021)
• Record: Won 3 Lost 0 Halved 1
• Earned three-and-a-half points from four matches on his debut in 2021, winning both matches alongside good friend Xander Schauffele and then beating Shane Lowry in the singles. Widely blamed for what Brooks Koepka labelled the “brutally slow” pace of play in the final round of the Masters.

Max Homa

• Age: 32
• Caps: 0
• Won his sixth PGA Tour title at Torrey Pines in January and recorded a first major top-10 finish in the Open Championship in July. Went into the final qualifying event in the last automatic place and finished in a tie for fifth to make sure of his place.

Xander Schauffele

• Age: 29
• Caps: 1 (2021)
• Won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics – his grandparents live in the city – after getting up and down for par on the 72nd hole to win by one. Last win came in the 2022 Scottish Open, but was eighth in the last qualifying event to move from seventh to sixth in the standings.

WILD CARDS

Collin Morikawa

• Age: 26
• Caps: 1
• Record: Won 3 Lost 0 Halved 1
• Became the first player to capture two different majors on the first attempt with his victories in the 2020 US PGA Championship and 2021 Open Championship. Unbeaten on his Ryder Cup debut at Whistling Straits, winning three matches alongside Dustin Johnson and halving his singles with Viktor Hovland.

Brooks Koepka

• Age: 33
• Caps: 3 (2016, 2018, 2021)
• Record: Won 6 Lost 5 Halved 1
• Second in the Masters and won his fifth major title in the US PGA Championship to seemingly seal his place on the team, but fell from fifth to seventh on the standings in the final qualifying event. Earned two points from four matches at Whistling Straits two years ago.

Justin Thomas

• Age: 30
• Caps: 2 (2018, 2021)
• Record: Won 6 Lost 2 Halved 1
• Won four points from five matches on his debut, with only the star European pairing of Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari able to get the better of Thomas and Jordan Spieth. Thomas also beat McIlroy in the opening singles. Won his second US PGA title last year but failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup play-offs this season.

Jordan Spieth

• Age: 30
• Caps: 4 (2014, 2016, 2018, 2021)
• Record: Won 8 Lost 7 Halved 3
• Won two-and-a-half points from three matches with Patrick Reed in 2014 and the same from their four together in 2016, but partnered Thomas – much to Reed’s unhappiness – in Paris and claimed three wins from four matches before losing 5&4 to Thorbjorn Olesen in the singles.

Sam Burns

• Age 27
• Caps 0
• Halved two and lost his other three matches in the 2022 Presidents Cup, but won his fifth PGA Tour title in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in March, beating world number one Scheffler in the semi-finals and Cameron Young 6&5 in the final.

Rickie Fowler

• Age: 34
• Caps 4 (2010, 2014, 2016, 2018)
• Record: Won 3 Lost 7 Halved 5
• Failed to win a match on either of his first two appearances and managed just one win from four matches in Paris in 2018. Ended more than four years without a victory in the Rocket Mortgage Classic in July and started the US Open with a record-equalling 62, but finished fifth after a closing 75.