Each day, until Davis Love III makes his Ryder Cup captain’s picks, analysts on ‘Golf Central’ and ‘Morning Drive’ will break down the players who are vying for one of the coveted spots. Love will make his decision Sept. 4, the day after the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Today’s player under the spotlight is Rickie Fowler.
Why pick: He’s young, he’s hip, he’s cool. For an organization like the PGA of America, which is constantly trying to grow the game and also coincidentally runs the Ryder Cup, including Fowler means an entire generation of flat-billed teeny-boppers may be eyeballing this biennial competition for the very first time. More importantly, Fowler is a glue guy. He may not be the best ball-striker nor putter in the world, but he’s hardly the worst at either. And as a good-natured, likable player, he can easily be paired with any of the 11 other players on the roster, giving Love plenty of options on where to play him over the first two days.
Why skip: The captain has repeatedly claimed he wants players who are in form entering Ryder Cup week. Since a run of three consecutive top-five finishes in May, Fowler’s last six results have been the following: 52-41-31-60-MC-24. There’s a chance that he could get to Medinah facing his first real meaningful putt in more than four months. The same can’t be said for five of the other half-dozen strong candidates, as everyone else besides Hunter Mahan has been in the heat of battle recently, contending for PGA Tour titles. Of those candidates, there may be nobody who needs a strong week at the Deutsche Bank Championship more than Fowler, who can prove that he’s on the verge of turning things around.