Butch Harmon on Tiger Woods being given Ryder Cup captain's pick

Butch Harmon

Golf Columnist

Tuesday 4 September 2018 23:07, UK

Butch Harmon discusses Jim Furyk's captain picks and looks at what we can expect from Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau at the Ryder Cup.

I think the first three picks were pretty obvious from the way they've been playing. DeChambeau has been playing so well, Woods has surprised all of us with how well he has played, while Mickelson won earlier in the season and had a good last round last week.

Tiger wasn't even sure if he would ever make it back to being competitive again, let alone have a chance to win major championships and get back in the Ryder Cup team.

If you look at his season then you see he was right there at the Open Championship and the PGA Championship, so it would have been impossible to think of Furyk keeping him off the team.

Watching his press conference you could see how humble he was about it and how much he wanted to be a part of it. It has been 25 years since the USA have won a Ryder Cup in Europe, so having him back on the team is a great boost.

The talk has been about him and DeChambeau being paired together, because they get along and play practice rounds together, but I'm not sure what captain Furyk has in mind about that.

DeChambeau is like the mad scientist of the team and is very analytical about everything. I would think that we can expect to see them at least one or twice, whether that's in foursomes or fourballs.

I think unless something really drastic happens at the BMW Championship this week, then Tony Finau for me has to get that final spot. He's No 17 in the world, has played well all year and would be the obvious choice.