Jim Furyk says he’ll let the Ryder Cup jockeying play out over the next month before committing to any one player, including Tiger Woods. Meanwhile, Woods may not need a captain’s pick… We know Justin Rose will be in France, as the Englishman is now world No. 2… And Jordan Spieth will be there too, but which one?
Now onto the Wire.
FURYK NON-COMMITTAL ON WOODS FOR RYDER CUP
Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk says it was fun to watch Tiger Woods contend at the British Open and briefly take the lead in the final round. Whether that means Woods is a lock for the U.S. team is still to be determined.
“I’m going to handle him the way I do everyone else,” Furyk said Monday before boarding a flight for the Canadian Open. “I’ll ask my top eight guys. The way he’s playing, he might be one of them. I’ll ask the vice captains, collectively, and I think we’ll do the best we can to round out the team. We want the guys playing the best.”
– By Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press
RYDER CUP: WOODS MOVES TO NO.20
Tiger Woods and Kevin Chappell are the biggest movers in the latest Ryder Cup USA Rankings after The 147th Open Championship, where the two players tied for sixth at 5-under, three strokes behind champion Francesco Molinari. Tiger is now 20th in the standings – up 11 spots from last week – and Chappell jumped 13 spots to 22nd…
U.S. players will continue to gain points in 2018 at every non-opposite PGA Tour event, WGC and major through the 100th PGA Championship at Bellerive, concluding on August 12, 2018.
– By Andy Wittry, RyderCup.com
JUSTIN ROSE SWAPS OUT WITH JUSTIN THOMAS
Justin Thomas‘ miss at The Open, coupled with a T2 by Justin Rose, forced a swapping of positions, as the Englishman moved to No. 2 and the American took the third spot.
Rose has been in top form the past three months while Thomas has cooled off considerably since a hot stretch in March, highlighted by a win at the Honda and a playoff loss in Mexico.
– By Jordan Thomas, Pro Golf Weekly
Proud of my new PB! #2 in the ? Thank you for all the support and messages #team? pic.twitter.com/n5fUZiTuMZ
— Justin Rose (@JustinRose99) July 23, 2018
– By Justin Rose, Twitter
SPIETH: BEST IS YET TO COME
Many players were soundly defeated by the course, but nobody had a more notable struggle than defending champion Jordan Spieth. A 54-hole co-leader, Spieth appeared to have worked his way past his recent struggles and was the favorite to leave Scotland with the Claret Jug.
Despite having three career major championships to his name, though, Spieth never looked anywhere near comfortable on Sunday. The accomplished 24-year-old was one of just two players in the field to not play a single hole under par, and with three bogeys and a double, Spieth shot a 5-over 76 to finish in a tie for ninth place.
– By Joel Cook, Pro Golf Weekly
Q. Is the last year going to help you a lot going forward, going through everything you went through, trying to figure it out?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I think — I believe that my best golf has yet to come, absolutely. Even better than ’15, all that, yeah. I believe that going through struggles, you start to realise where your tendencies are and how to — you know, how to compensate for it and turn them into advantages. I think that I have that going for me.
This golf course in general, I knew coming in that it’s probably the worst for me in the rotation, just given where my misses are, and the way the last few — so I’m not making excuses for myself by any means because all I had to do is shoot even par today, and I could certainly do that out here.
But today it showed you on the greens that I felt like I hit great putts and missed them from everywhere, and I just don’t do that when I’m hitting good putts. Just misreads, and I just couldn’t get it to the hole. It’s so hard to hit it that hard, and they’re so flat.
I’m an imaginative putter, very feel putter. You just almost have to be ding, ding, you know, straight lines. It’s weird.
