5 Reasons Brooks Koepka Will Be On The US Ryder Cup Team

PGA champion Brooks Koepka was shunted out of the automatic qualifying spots for this year's Ryder Cup as Xander Schauffele and Max Homa both secured their places for Rome. We look at why the five-time Major winner will be the only LIV golfer in Italy.

1) It's easy to forget, given that the PGA at Oak Hill was back in May, but we all came away from that convinced that Koepka was the all-time guy for the big occasion. Five Major wins in just 22 starts is a ridiculous stat and, when he gets a sniff of a big one, then he's very often the man. Yes, there has been the odd blip but, generally speaking, he's almost a generational talent and that is plenty good enough to get one of the remaining six spots.

2) The LIV non-competitive argument doesn't really wash any more given that Koepka has won a Major this year and, most likely, should also have won the Masters. The argument that they'd all just gone for the money, which is obviously partly true, was quickly offset by players performing well because of less golf. There's actually a LIV event the week before Marco Simone so he might actually be better prepared than anyone in terms of recent game time.

3) Koepka has played on three teams before and has a record of 6-5-1 from two overall wins and a crushing loss in Paris. In that time he's been paired with the likes of Brandt Snedeker, Dustin Johnson and Tony Finau which suggests a pretty easy-going partner. Koepka might say the odd controversial thing but he won't split opinion in a team room. He might play his golf with LIV but, should he get the nod from Zach Johnson, he'll fit straight back into Team USA without any awkwardness which might not be the case with one or two others.

4) Koepka managed to finish seventh in the standings despite playing in just 10 qualifying events and just four this year. And yet he still nearly made the team on merit. Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman have both enjoyed stellar years but it's their Major wins which have got them to Italy and the same should be said of Koepka. The PGA of America run the Ryder Cup and, back in the day, their champion was guaranteed a place on the Ryder Cup team. He played a practice round with Captain Johnson at Royal Liverpool and that should tell us plenty about what's going to happen next week.

5) It's all well and good to go over the top about what's happening at the Tour Championship or FedEx Cup but that's all going to be forgotten in a month's time. When the balls go up in the air in Rome who do you least want to be facing? Koepka or the likes of Lucas Glover? This happens every two years where it's easy to forget quite what a big gun can bring to a team. Koepka is yet to lose a Ryder Cup singles and he's capable of fitting his game to any course on the planet and that should all be plenty to see him make a fourth appearance.