A 48th-ranked rookie in the team room
Brandt Snedeker used his last captain’s pick on a player who sat 48th in the United States qualifying standings. Jackson Koivun is 21, three months into his professional career, and now part of the American side that meets the Internationals at Medinah Country Club from Sept. 24-27.
The number that made the case was not his ranking. Koivun won the 3M Open in his third start as a professional, and he did it by three shots over Scottie Scheffler. Snedeker passed over Ben Griffin, eighth in the standings, and J.J. Spaun, tenth, to find room for him.
Only one American has played a Presidents Cup younger. Jordan Spieth was 20 when he made the 2013 team.
“It means the world. This has been a tournament I’ve grown up watching, I love team play and I love playing for the United States of America,” Koivun said on the Golf Channel programme where the pick was announced on Tuesday.
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How both sides filled out
Koivun joins Chris Gotterup, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Jacob Bridgeman as Snedeker’s six selections. They sit alongside the six who qualified on points: Scheffler, Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, Russell Henley and Collin Morikawa. Gotterup and Bridgeman are first-timers too. Gotterup has climbed to seventh in the world rankings with five career wins, three of them this year.
Geoff Ogilvy named his International picks the same day, taking Canadians Corey Conners and Nick Taylor, Colombia’s Nico Echavarria, South Korea’s Sungjae Im, Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune and South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Open champion Ryan Fox, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott, Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim came through the standings. Scott will tie the record with a 12th appearance in the event.
Jason Day sat 11th in the International standings and missed out, above both Taylor at 13th and Bezuidenhout at 18th. The former world number one has five Cup appearances behind him.
The number the Internationals cannot shift
Snedeker has settled on four-ball to open on Thursday, foursomes on Friday, both formats across Saturday, then 12 singles matches on Sunday. The Americans reach Medinah on a run of 10 straight wins and an all-time record of 13-1-1. The Internationals have not won the Presidents Cup since 1998.
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