With BMW Championship Win, Cantlay Takes Final Automatic Spot On U.S. Ryder Cup Team

OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Patrick Cantlay earned the sixth and last automatic spot connected the U.S. Ryder Cup squad by winning the BMW Championship connected Sunday.

All that meant was avoiding a telephone telephone from the captain, Steve Stricker, aft the Tour Championship to pass him of being a pick.

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Because of the pandemic that delayed the Ryder Cup 1 twelvemonth until Sept. 24-26, qualifying began the time Tiger Woods won the 2019 Masters. It ended 28 months aboriginal with six players assured a spot astatine Whistling Straits, and the existent play inactive a week away.

Collin Morikawa, who won 2 majors during the qualifying process, topped the list. He was followed by Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas, each of whom had mathematically locked up their spots.

Tony Finau was successful the sixth spot until helium was surpassed by Cantlay’s victory. Cantlay and Morikawa volition beryllium making their Ryder Cup debuts.

The U.S. squad has six captain’s picks this twelvemonth alternatively of four, a determination made during the midst of the pandemic and truthful overmuch uncertainty astir the play schedule.

Cantlay was considered a shoo-in to beryllium picked adjacent if helium didn’t marque the team. Ditto for Finau aft helium won The Northern Trust past week, and Olympic golden medalist Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth. They are the adjacent 3 successful the standings.

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Harris English, a two-time victor this year, is No. 10 successful the standings.

Stricker volition marque his picks authoritative aft the Tour Championship. Among the candidates are Daniel Berger, Webb Simpson, Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, and the funny lawsuit of Patrick Reed, who had a large week without adjacent playing astatine Caves Valley.

Reed, who has a penchant for lucifer play with his marvelous abbreviated crippled and relentless attitude, has been retired the past 3 weeks, archetypal with an ankle injury, past with what helium described arsenic bilateral pneumonia.

He faced agelong likelihood of being among the apical 30 who beforehand to the Tour Championship, but it worked successful his favor. Of the 10 players down him successful the FedEx Cup standings, lone Rory McIlroy finished among the apical 25 astatine the BMW Championship.

And erstwhile K.H. Lee made bogey from the mediate of the 18th fairway, that allowed Reed to enactment astatine No. 30. That means Reed, if healthy, gets a accidental to play astatine East Lake successful what could magnitude to an audition for the Ryder Cup.

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Europe, meanwhile, inactive has 2 much events earlier its qualifying ends.