Jordan Spieth and Olympic champion Xander Schauffele among Team USA’s Ryder Cup captain’s picks

The other four captain’s picks for golf’s biennial tournament, which gets underway at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin on September 24, were Harris English, Scottie Scheffler, Daniel Berger, and Tony Finau.

Those six players join Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay, who all automatically qualified based on points earned from performances over the past two years.

Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion who featured in the Ryder Cup team that year, is the top-ranked American player to miss out on a captain’s pick.

“That was a very, very difficult call, I kind of lost sleep over that one,” said Stricker. “He’s a tremendous competitor, he brings a lot to matchplay golf, his record here at the Ryder Cup is pretty darn good.

“It was a very difficult call, it wasn’t an easy one. It was just the uncertainty really of his health and really the lack of play that lead to our decision down the stretch.”

Reed was hospitalized with bilateral pneumonia last month and returned to action at last week’s Tour Championship.

USA has won just two of the past nine Ryder Cups, with this year marking the 43rd edition of the tournament having been postponed from last year amid the pandemic.

Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Paul Casey, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland have all earned automatic qualification for Team Europe based on the world and European points lists.

Four more automatic qualification spots are still up for grabs, plus three picks from captain Padraig Harrington set to be announced on Sunday.