Davis Love III announces his first three Ryder Cup picks on Monday

Davis Love III will announce three of his four picks for Hazeltine after this week's BMW Championship. Who will he choose? Jamie Weir assesses his options.

Rickie Fowler is seen as a shoo-in for one of them. He would have qualified automatically but for a back-nine collapse in the final round of The Barclays. He would also have qualified had his victory back in January in Abu Dhabi against a top European field counted for more than the zero dollars and zero cents that it did.

He also bleeds red, white and blue; and his infectious enthusiasm for representing his country at the Olympics will have caught Love's eye. This is the guy that shaved 'USA' into the side of his head at Gleneagles, remember.

Fowler (L) and Watson are both looking for captain's picks

Perceived wisdom suggests two elder statesmen, Jim Furyk and Matt Kuchar, are also 'locks', to use American parlance.

Furyk's Ryder Cup record is, well, pretty dreadful. On the nine occasions he's represented the US, they've lost seven times and his own record of played 34, won 10, lost 20, halved 4 makes fairly grim reading. That said, very few Americans to have played over the last couple of decades can boast a positive record.

He remains a talismanic figure, a likeable team member and his form in recent months - including that round of 58 at the Travelers Championship, a PGA Tour record - has strengthened his case. Like Furyk, Kuchar is a solid and dependable, if unspectacular, performer who is popular in the team room and brings a calming influence to any pairing, particularly in foursomes. Fresh from his bronze medal in Rio, he's hitting his straps at just the right time.

Furyk is one of Love's vice-captains

But it's the destination of Love's fourth and final pick - only to be made five days before the first teeshot at Hazeltine is hit - that poses the biggest conundrum. There are cases to be made for a pair of 23-year-olds, Daniel Berger or Justin Thomas, both of whom have won their maiden Tour titles within the last twelve months.

With just the one rookie, Brooks Koepka, in his line-up so far, Love isn't hamstrung to the same extent that Darren Clarke was in needing to inject some experience into his dozen. Throwing some youthful exuberance into the melting pot may prove tempting. There's also Ryan Moore, who at 34 is not a whippersnapper like Berger or Thomas, but a five-time winner on Tour in red-hot form.

There's also a chance that one of the 40 not-already-qualified American golfers to have made it through to the third week of the FedExCup could 'do a Billy Horschel' and win the last two events, in the process catapulting himself from obscurity to the forefront of Love's thoughts.

Watson missed the cut at the Deutsche Bank Championship

Two years ago, with the USA Team already complete, back-to-back victories for Horschel saw him win the FedEx Cup, scoop the $10m jackpot but then have to watch his fellow countrymen slump to their third straight Ryder Cup defeat from his sofa in Florida. He is the reason Love is staggering his picks.

All that said, it may be that it comes down to a straight shootout between Bubba Watson and JB Holmes. An 'no-brainer', I hear you say - it's got to be Bubba. He is the world No 7, he has won The Masters twice, and as a fist-pumping, badge-thumping all-American patriot, he'll gee up the 'Baba-Booey!' and 'Mashed Potato!'-screaming hoardes at into a star-spangled frenzy. 

Watson has played in the last three Ryder Cups, all of them American losses. In that time he's lost all three of his singles matches. At Medinah, he was given the crucial role of leading the team out in the top match but his 2&1 defeat to Luke Donald lit the blue touchpaper for the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history. He's also lost both of the foursomes matches he's been involved in since making his debut at Celtic Manor. 

Watson has five top-10s in 2016

Holmes has none of the scar tissue Watson will have of being involved in three losing efforts. His only previous Ryder Cup appearance was in 2008 at Valhalla, the USA's sole victory this century. In his home state of Kentucky he took two-and-a-half points from his three matches, seeing off Soren Hansen 2&1 in his Sunday singles match. Indeed, on the four occasions he's represented his country in a team event, he has been on the winning side every time.

This season, Holmes followed a tied fourth-place finish at The Masters with a third-place finish at The Open, albeit a distant third behind the superlative Stenson and Mickelson. Aside from Augusta and Troon, he has seven other top-15 finishes.

Holmes missed three cuts in a row after The Open

On the flip side, Watson's best finish in a major this season was a tie for 37th at The Masters and since victory at the Northern Trust Open back in February and a runner-up finish at the WGC Cadillac in March, his best finish is a tie for 13th at The Barclays.  

Character is a more intangible quality that Davis Love will be weighing up as he makes his final calculations. There is a suggestion Watson can be a divisive figure, more of a lone wolf who not all of his peers easily warm to. Holmes is well-liked, and his personal battles in recent years - he needed brain surgery twice in 2011 and has endured a series of injuries since - have won him respect on Tour.

Yes, Bubba will get those galleries a-whoopin' and a-hollerin', but so too will Holmes. Both are prodigious hitters and Hazeltine is a course for the bombers, but on the evidence of recent months Holmes's missiles are flying a little straighter and with more accuracy than Watson's. It may be hard to overlook someone with two majors to his name, but for me John Bradley Holmes edges it.

Watch Davis Love III announce three of his picks live on Monday from 4pm on Sky Sports News HQ