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The final men’s major of the year is in the books, and with it the last chance to earn beaucoup points to earn a place on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, not to mention one of the last opportunities to impress captain Keegan Bradley. So who has punched their ticket, who gained ground, who lost all hope, and who remains in the shadow zones? Let’s run down the list, and keep in mind the Ryder Cup rankings are a good guide while reading, as is Data Golf’s guide to course fit.
Team Locks
Scottie Scheffler
The World No. 1 was the only American player who had qualified automatically before the British Open, and then he won at Royal Portrush. Technically, then his chances of making the team are exactly the same as they were a week ago. Truly a shame he couldn’t have done more at Portrush to impress Keegan.
Xander Schauffele
Richard Heathcote
He played quite well at Portrush, carding a backdoor T-7, a nice finish to an otherwise mildly disappointing year. Despite the fact he didn’t followed up his two major 2024 season with the same torrid form, I can’t in good faith make an argument that he was anything but a lock before this. But anyway, yes, the World No. 3 is definitely in.
Russell Henley
He had so much going for him already, both with his performance in 2025 (Bay Hill win, slew of top-10s) and the way he partnered with Scheffler at the Presidents Cup last fall, but he wasn’t all the way to 100 percent yet. Now, after a great week at Royal Portrush that ended with top-10, he’s 100 percent. Lock him in.
Bryson DeChambeau
There will be plenty of people who disagree with me, but despite the fact that he came into this week ranked fifth in the standings, I thought a missed cut would spell at least some trouble for his hopes. Unlike most of his competitors, he wouldn’t have another chance to gain points and would likely finish somewhere around ninth or 10th on the list by the time the playoffs were done, needing Bradley to make him a captain’s pick. But the fight he showed to make the Open cut after a woeful first round, followed by a tremendous weekend to finish T-10, was good enough for Bradley to tell Sports Illustrated on Sunday that Bryson will get a captain’s pick.
Stock Rising
Harris English
Icon Sportswire
For guys in English’s position (he came in ranked 10th in the points), this tournament loomed so incredibly large. And he stepped up in a massive way, right down to the final holes, showing real form all weekend and squeezing out a solo second, his second runner-up in a major in 2025. Even the seemingly minor distinction between solo second and, say, T-3 is massive, because of all the points at stake and the massive gap in money between the top spots. He made a really great case for himself, got into the top six in points, and set up a realistic chance to qualify on his own merits in the playoffs. Even if he were to narrowly fail, he’s now so much more likely to get a pick.
Justin Thomas
A T-34 finish at Portrush isn’t any kind of exclamation mark, and he’ll drop out of the top six, but considering his past performances at the Ryder Cup and the nice year he’s putting together, he remains in a place I’m calling “will absolutely make the team unless Keegan Bradley is out for revenge at any cost.” Bradley might be crazy enough to do it, but I’m still calling him a semi-firm lock.
Maverick McNealy
Mav was in the OWGR top 10 for a good long while this year, but it really felt like his momentum had stalled out with a decent but decidedly less impressive second half of the summer. What he accomplished at Portrush, posting a 66 on Sunday to finish T-23, resuscitated his chances. He still has work to do in the playoffs—lots of work—but he’s turned a negative narrative around for the time being.
Chris Gotterup
My goodness, how this guy’s stock is rising! For Bradley in the captain’s chair, this is a classic “good problem to have” out of nowhere. A month ago you wouldn’t have mentioned Gotterup in the top 30 of contenders, but then he won the Scottish Open (and stood up to Rory McIlroy while doing it), and now he just finished solo third in only the fourth major he has ever played. He’s the hottest American going besides Scheffler. He’s a really, really good course fit at Bethpage too, and though I still see him as slightly on the outside looking in, he’s rising like a rocket ship, and a few good playoff finishes should be plenty to get him on the team.
Stock Unchanged
J.J. Spaun
Andy Lyons
A great showing at the British Open would have solidified his chances, a terrible showing might have dinged him a little, but instead we got a good-but-not-great T-23, which leaves us pretty much where we started with the U.S. Open winner, with about an 85 percent chance of him making the team. A lot here depends on the philosophy of Bradley … would he really leave Spaun off the team if he somehow slipped to, say, seventh in the standings? It’s absolutely possible—speculation is that he is hesitant to take rookies with captain’s picks—but overall it feels like this week is a slight net good for Spaun.
Sam Burns
In theory, Burns brings you a huge weapon in the Ryder Cup with his putting, which is world class and has him No. 1 in strokes gained for the year. Couple that with his near-miss at Oakmont and Burns’ history of playing with Scheffler, and you’d think he would be sitting pretty even at 15th in the standings. But though early returns at Portrush were positive, he underwhelmed a little on the weekend and finished at one under. Add in the fact that his career record in team events is 4-5-3, and I’m not sure he did anything positive for himself.
Brian Harman
Warning: this one’s harsh. It seems crazy to be typing that he’s static after he had the entire United Kingdom and Ireland deathly afraid he would win another Open just a couple days ago. But the problem with Harman is that he’s not a great fit for Bethpage, and it really felt like he needed something spectacular to make an emphatic case. He didn’t quite get it, and now it feels like he’s fighting a big uphill battle to make the team. Even if he’s expected to rise slightly from 12th, he is going to stand against guys with solid Ryder Cup records who may end up below him … guys like Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns and Keegan Bradley.
Lucas Glover
Again, a little harsh after a solid T-23 Open finish, but without the kind of wow-factor firepower, slinking around 14th or so in the standings doesn’t get the job done. Like Harman, he needs something dramatic.
Stock Falling
Collin Morikawa
Stacy Revere
He’s ranked sixth in the world, been brilliant at past Ryder Cups and, until the last few weeks, hadn’t missed a cut. Now he’s missed two cuts and seems to have weird drama with the media every other week, not to mention a new caddie carousel that doesn’t inspire confidence. I still can’t see him missing the team, but he’s outside the top six and the momentum feels … off.
Ben Griffin
Did Griffin get hot just a fraction too early? His chances look so good after the win at Colonial and a second at Memorial, bookended by top-10s at the U.S. Open and PGA. Now he’s had two straight missed cuts. He’ll fall from his current position of eighth in the standings, and with a negligible course fit profile, his spot feels way more insecure than it did a month ago.
Keegan Bradley
Jamie Squire
Hear me out … yes, he will probably still pick himself. But after originally say he wouldn’t play unless he made the team automatically and then amending that to “things have changed” after winning the Travelers, he really, really doesn’t want to fall too far down the standings and have to pick himself if he’s at that awkward 10th to 14th in the standings. At that point, it becomes a PR hassle, and he’ll face accusations that he was going to pick himself no matter what. At what point does he go back to being a captain and look elsewhere for his picks?
Patrick Cantlay
He’s a tremendous competitor in these team events, and right now that’s about the only thing going for him. If I were Bradley, I’d really want to use an experience pick on him to get the Cantlay-Schauffele team back together, but he’s still got to give him a reason. With Cantlay missing the cut this week, my guess is he’ll need a good playoff finish or two. Short of a couple wins, he’ll certainly need a captain’s pick either way, and I’m not sure he has it right now.
Andrew Novak
He made the cut at Portrush, but finished near the bottom of the weekend players at four over. He felt like a longshot coming in, despite his 13th place in the standings, and this finish places him comfortably in the “not going to make it unless he absolutely lights up the playoffs” category.
Cam Young/Tom Hoge/Daniel Berger/Tony Finau
None of them did enough at the Open, and all of them will basically need to win a playoff event to pull off a miracle last-minute team berth. Otherwise, they’re kaput.
Stock Bottomed Out
Patrick Reed
Ramsey Cardy/Getty Images
Count me as someone who wasn’t 100 percent sure he would make the team if he literally won the Open. He would have deserved it from a playing standpoint, coming off the heels of his LIV Dallas win, but relationships matter, and my completely speculative position was that they might not take him anyway after what happened in 2018. As it stands, we don’t have to make a guess—he missed the cut at Portrush, and doesn’t have anywhere close to the résumé this year to get consideration. Without a chance to win playoff events these next few weeks, he’s out.
Brooks Koepka
Similar deal: a LIV player who needed to really impress at the Open to have a prayer. Instead, he’s now missed three of four major cuts and, like Reed, without that last-ditch FedExCup playoffs hope, there isn’t a shadow of a chance left.
How the U.S. Team shakes out (according to us)
Scheffler, Schauffele, Henley, DeChambeau, English, Thomas, Spaun, Morikawa, Bradley, Griffin, Cantlay, Burns.
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