Golf Ryder Cup Moore added to US team
United States Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III completed his line-up for this weekend’s matches on home soil with Europe when he named Tour Championship runner-up Ryan Moore as his 12th and final team member writes Simon Lewis.
Moore, 33, was captain Love’s fourth and final wild card pick, following Rickie Fowler, JB Holmes and Olympic bronze medalist Matt Kuchar, who were added to the American team earlier this month.
After three defeats in a row to the Europeans, Love had been given as late as possible to finalise his team with the lone pick designed to bring some current form to the event in Minnesota, which begins this Friday.
Selecting Moore does exactly that, coming close on Sunday evening to winning the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta only to lose out to Rory McIlroy at the fourth sudden death play-off hole.
It had been a titanic tussle between the pair, who had been paired together for the final round behind overnight leaders Dustin Johnson and Kevin Chappell. Both the Irishman and American had forced their way into a share of the 72-hole lead with Chappell after each posting final-round 64s, matching Paul Casey’s low score of the day.
It rounded off a fine end to the season for Moore, with a victory at the John Deere Classic and two top-10 finishes in the FedEx Cup play-off series before his runner-up spot behind McIlroy, all in his last six starts.
He becomes just the second rookie on the US team when play gets under way on Friday, Brooks Koepka having automatically qualified, compared to the six debutants Darren Clarke will field on the European side as they bid to win four in a row.
Moore’s battle with McIlroy may have ended in defeat but it was a duel to set the tone for the upcoming Ryder Cup showdown and the American has some match-play pedigree, winning the US Amateur and NCAA collegiate title in 2004 and reaching the last eight of this season’s WGC-Dell Match Play.
Love had been set to announce his final pick to a great fanfare on NBC’s Sunday Night Football half-time show but that plan was shelved following the breaking news of the death of golf great Arnold Palmer at the age of 87, the PGA of America instead delivering the new via a press release.
Both teams arrive at Hazeltine National on Monday evening, Irish time.
