Ryder Cup 2023: Steve Palmer's guide to Team USA

Where to watch the Ryder Cup

Live on Sky Sports Main Event and Golf from 6am on Friday

Steve Palmer's guide to the USA Ryder Cup squad

Zach Johnson (captain)

The mild-mannered 47-year-old is leading his country for the first time and the strain has been showing this week. He seems nervous about the role and set to lean heavily on his deputies – Steve Stricker, Davis Love, Jim Furyk, Fred Couples and Stewart Cink.

Player power could take over in the American camp, with friends demanding to play with each other, and Johnson may not be strong enough to turn down these requests. He will have a tough decision to make should Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas fail to sparkle as they have for Team USA in the past.

Sam Burns

The WGC-Match Play champion enjoys this format of the sport, but he has been inconsistent since that victory and the rookie is fortunate to get a wildcard pick from Captain Johnson.A close friendship with Scottie Scheffler is one reason why Johnson has been attracted to Burns. 

The Scheffler-Burns combination seems almost certain to be unleashed at some stage, perhaps from the off. They joined forces in the Presidents Cup last year and played well, but came up against inspired opposition, winning only half a point from three matches.

Patrick Cantlay 

The 2021 FedEx Cup champion is teeing up in his first Ryder Cup away fixture and it was a surprise that he spurned the chance to make an early visit to the Marco Simone in America’s scouting trip earlier this month. 

His good friend Xander Schauffele also made excuses to miss that trip and there seems to be a complacency about the Cantlay-Schauffele alliance.It would be a shock if Captain Johnson splits the pair – Cantlay and Schauffele have proved themselves together for the US and in the Zurich Classic PGA Tour pairs event – and they should play in foursomes tomorrow.

Wyndham Clark

The US Open champion is one of seven players on the American team who use a Titleist ProV1 ball, so he may see some foursomes action. Max Homa would seem the most likely candidate for partnering Clark, given they both live in Scottsdale and have been practising foursomes golf together in recent weeks. They are both Cup rookies though.

Clark, powerful off the tee and deadly on the greens, could be a potent weapon in the fourballs if in form. As with so many of the American side, though, he has been inactive for a month. He intended to play in the Fortinet Championship a fortnight ago, but fell ill beforehand.

Rickie Fowler

Three wins from 15 Ryder Cup matches is an abysmal record for such a decorated player. This has been a comeback season for Fowler – a four-year PGA Tour victory drought ending in the summer – but he has been disappointing since that Rocket Mortgage Classic success.

Expect Fowler to be benched for the foursomes, but unleashed in a fourballs combination, perhaps with a fellow Californian, such as Collin Morikawa or Max Homa, or one of his good pals, Jordan Spieth or Justin Thomas.

Brian Harman

The Open champion is representing his country as a professional for the first time at the age of 36. He is the oldest member of Team USA. He is a close friend of Captain Johnson and it will be difficult for the American skipper to ignore his pal, particularly given how well the gritty left-hander putted under pressure at Royal Liverpool in July.

The difficulty for Johnson is the lack of an obvious partner for Harman. Brooks Koepka presents a similar issue for Johnson and the captain may decide to kill two birds with one stone by putting these two misfits together. 

Max Homa

Last year’s Presidents Cup was a triumph for Homa, who had spent his career yearning for an opportunity to represent his country in a professional event. He handled the occasion superbly, winning all four of his matches, and it could be a similar story on his Ryder Cup debut.

Homa was swinging superbly in his last outing, finishing seventh in the Fortinet Championship despite a cold putter, and his form figures from the Scottish Open onwards are 12-10-6-5-9-7. This rock-solid all-rounder could be a man for Johnson to rely on.

Brooks Koepka

The only LIV Golf representative in the competition. The five-time Major champion made it practically impossible for him to be left out by producing 2023 Major form of 2-1-17-64, almost winning the Masters in April, then following up with US PGA glory in May.

Koepka has lost some sparkle recently, but he is so proven in mentally tough situations that Captain Johnson will be keen to get the Floridian heavily involved. The rest of the side are anti-LIV, but will be expected to put that issue to one side for a week.

Collin Morikawa

A two-time Major champion on a victory drought, but the former world number two showed some great form in the Tour Championship last time out and should be ready to play a major role this week.

Morikawa was unbeaten on his Ryder Cup debut in 2021, winning three matches alongside Dustin Johnson over the first two days, then earning a half-point against Viktor Hovland in the singles. With Johnson absent this time – and Morikawa’s Presidents Cup foil Cameron Young also failing to make the side – a new partner will be needed this week. Fellow Californian and good friend, Max Homa, seems an obvious choice for Johnson.

Xander Schauffele

It seems a given that Schauffele will partner his close friend Patrick Cantlay in another team competition. Aside from a narrow defeat to inspired Koreans Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim in the final pairs session of the Presidents Cup last year, the Schauffele-Cantlay combo looked awesome again.

It must be noted, though, that Schauffele and Cantlay lost both of their fourballs matches in the 2019 Presidents Cup – they seem a more reliable duo in foursomes combat. Expect Johnson to field this pairing for both foursomes sessions.

Scottie Scheffler

The world number one has been hitting his ball supremely this season, but putting like an elephant, and that lack of confidence on the greens could become a huge issue. Johnson will be praying that Scheffler can hole some putts early and regain self-belief. He was unbeaten through three matches on his Cup debut two years ago, thrashing Jon Rahm in the singles.

Scheffler seems a short price in the top-scorer markets given that his good friend and likely playing partner Sam Burns has been struggling for top form since winning the WGC-Match Play at the end of March. Whether these two click in the opening foursomes could go a long way to determining who lifts the trophy on Sunday.

Jordan Spieth

Poor performances in the final two FedEx Cup playoff events have been followed by the birth of his first daughter, so Spieth may struggle to perform a leading role. The new arrival meant Spieth missed the scouting trip to Marco Simone, so he has been doing some heavy revision this week.

Spieth will probably request his lifelong friend Justin Thomas as playing partner. This duo have been awesome together in the past, including when enjoying a 100 per cent record in last year’s Presidents Cup, but neither has arrived at this week’s contest with confidence. Spieth has lost all four of his Ryder Cup singles matches.

Justin Thomas

As a former world number one and two-time Major champion, Thomas earned a wildcard pick, allowing Captain Johnson to ignore the formbook. Thomas has missed the cut in five of his last nine tournaments, but fifth place in the Fortinet Championship last time out was encouraging.

Thomas has made a career out of laserlike irons – and that department of his game was firing again in the Fortinet – but his driving remained wild. He is loose off the tee and low on putting confidence, so it is difficult to imagine JT making his impact of old. He took over the ‘Captain America’ role from Patrick Reed, but Reed, Dustin Johnson or Bryson DeChambeau would be better options for Team USA this week than a fragile Thomas.

Click for free bets and betting offers from the Racing Post

Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing and sports betting.