As things stand Brooks Koepka sits in second place on the US Ryder Cup standings following his recent win at the PGA Championship. With the two-shot win he became the first LIV Golf player to win a Major and he might easily be going for the third leg of the Grand Slam at this month's US Open having tied for second at The Masters.
So the question that is now popping up more than it was is whether a LIV golfer should be allowed to feature in the Ryder Cup in Rome? With six captain's picks a team without Koepka would seem a ridiculous option if you are of the opinion that a LIV player should feature in Italy and, judging by this week's press conferences at Muirfield Village, his team-mates are behind the move.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who has played on one Ryder Cup team, would happily have Koepka or whoever it took to finally get a win in Europe – the Americans incredibly last won an away match in 1993.
"I want to win the Ryder Cup. I don't care about tours or anything like that. I want to win the Ryder Cup. It's something we talked about when we finished (at Whistling Straits in 2021), we want to beat those guys in Europe. It's been a long time since we've beat them," Scheffler said.
"Whoever the best 12 guys that make a complete team, it's different than individual tournaments. We want a team of guys that are going over there together to bring the Cup back home, and that's all I really care about."
Patrick Cantlay, the next ranked American at fourth in the world, would echo Scheffler's thoughts.
"I just want the best 12 Americans on the team. I don't think the US has won a Ryder Cup over there since '93. So I'm looking to change that."
Even Rory McIlroy believes that Koepka, who has also won twice on the LIV Golf League and is now ranked 14th in the world, should be worthy of a place on Zach Johnson's side.
"I certainly think Brooks deserves to be on the United States team. I think with how he's played, he's second in the US standings, only played two counting events. I don't know if there's anyone else on the LIV roster that would make the team on merit and how they're playing. But Brooks is definitely a guy that I think deserves to be on the US team," explained the World No. 3.
But McIlroy wasn't budging on the possibility of the Europeans playing for Luke Donald's side.
"But I have different feelings about the European team and the other side and sort of how that has all transpired and, yeah, I don't think any of those guys should be a part of the European team."
Back in September McIlroy reiterated his thoughts on how the European team should shape up, with an injection of younger players the way forward as opposed to the likes of Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter or Lee Westwood representing Europe again.
“I have said it once, I've said it a hundred times, I don't think any of those guys should be on the Ryder Cup team. I think we were in need of a rebuild, anyway. We did well with the same guys for a very long time but again as I just said, everything comes to an end at some point. I think Whistling Straits is a good sort of demarcation, I guess," McIlroy said.
“I think the European Team has a core of six or seven guys that I think we all know are pretty much going to be on that team, and then it's up to some of the younger guys to maybe step up. Instead of filling those three or four spots with older veterans, let's blood some rookies and let's get them in and build towards the future. I think that's important.”
While it would take some leap of faith to give a captain's pick to Westwood or Poulter, Garcia is the one whose absence will likely be felt the most by his peers. The Spaniard, who along with Dustin Johnson won the inaugural Nicklaus-Jacklin award at Whistling Straits for best typifying the right spirit, is the record points scorer in the competition with 28.5 points and has a ready-made partner in Jon Rahm.
Reportedly Garcia had a conversation with captain Donald who told him that he had no chance of making his side, something that has upset Rahm.
"I'm going to miss him. We had a great partnership at Whistling Straights. I'm going to mention history again one more time. A Spanish duo in the Ryder Cup I think to me is embedded into the roots of the Ryder Cup. Look with Seve and Ollie were able to do throughout their partnership, right. So it's a little sad to me that politics have gotten in the way of such a beautiful event," Rahm added.
"Again, it's the best Europeans against the best American, period. And whatever is going on, who is playing LIV and who is not playing LIV to me shouldn't matter. It's whoever is best suited to represent the European side. And I have a hard time to believe that the best player Europe has ever had, the most successful player Europe has had on the Ryder Cup isn't fit to be on the team. So, it's unfortunate. I will miss him. But with that said I want to be hopeful, there's a couple of Spanish guys playing really good right now, so hopefully they can join me on the team."
Matt Fitzpatrick, who will defend his US Open crown later this month, spoke earlier this year about not being bothered who made the European team.
"I think there definitely are a few personal relationships that have been dented by this [the LIV vs PGA Tour civil war]. I'm not bothered, I just want to win, and I'm sure those boys do too. Sergio would be the one that would stand out for me, particularly," Fitzpatrick told Sky Sports.
"I don't know the details of [his relationship with McIlroy]. I'm happy to share a room with him, if that's going to be the case, I can corner him off for everyone else."
