Butch Harmon delighted to see Rickie Fowler get a Ryder Cup wildcard pick
Monday 12 September 2016 22:00, UK
Butch Harmon welcomes Davis Love III's first three captain's picks for the US Ryder Cup team, and reveals that Rickie Fowler will be relieved after "putting too much pressure on himself" to play his way onto the team ...
I think JB Holmes and Matt Kuchar were pretty much locked in, and then it seemed to come down to either Rickie Fowler or Bubba Watson for the third captain's pick from US skipper Davis Love III.
He went for Rickie, and that's a huge relief for him - and for me as well, being his coach! He was obviously concerned that he might not get a pick after not managing to play his way onto the team when he had the chance.
But Rickie is very popular among the other players, he's easy to pair up with anybody, and he's one of the fan favourites which is a big help when you're playing in your own country. I think he was a very good pick and I'm happy for him.
He hasn't had his best season, but he had not played as badly as his scores might show. The problem he had towards the end of the season was that he was trying so hard to make the Ryder Cup team, he admitted to me that he put too much pressure on himself.
Popularity crucial
Rickie even played in more tournaments than he normally would, but the bottom line is he didn't get it done, so he will have been delighted, and relieved, to have got the call from captain Love.
I think Bubba could be feeling a little hard done by after he missed out on a pick, and I think it may have been a bit of a popularity contest. But Bubba still has a good chance to get on the team, Davis has one more pick to make after the Tour Championship so we'll see how that plays out.
But there will be others in the frame, particularly some of the younger players. Daniel Berger is one, but you could also look at Jim Furyk as a possibility even though he's not playing at East Lake next week.
Ryan Moore is another one who has not been talked about that much, but he's been playing very well along with a bunch of other young guys.
Whatever happens in Atlanta, Davis Love is going to have a lot of choices and whoever he picks is going to help the American team.
Well-prepared youngsters
I think the experience thing is a little overrated. There's been a lot of discussion about the European team being half-full of rookies, but in this day and age, the younger players are so well prepared. Being a rookie on a Ryder Cup team is nowhere near as big a deal as it used to be.
I think it's all about form. The days of a debutant struggling to handle the pressure of being at a Ryder Cup have come and gone. All of the youngsters today are world-class players and play golf all over the world.
The pressure is really on the Americans this year. They've won only two of the last 11 Ryder Cup contests, and they have to prove that everything they've done in the build-up to this year will work in their favour.
They need to get the job done on home soil, and we only have to wait less than three weeks now to see what happens.
My prediction? Of course I'm going to go for a US win, but I've said that every time for the last 21 years and it very seldom happens!
