Provo • Tony Finau isn’t worried yet.
There is still plenty of time to make up ground in the Ryder Cup standings, he says.
“There are still a lot of points up for grabs,” Finau said this week. “We’ve got the major championship. We have the FedEx Cup playoffs. So those are tournaments if you win them, or play well, you are going to shoot right up the rankings.”
He says it calmly, like a man who has played in two Ryder Cups, in 2018 and 2021. And he isn’t wrong.
As he tries to move up 12 spots in the standings in the next five weeks to automatically qualify for the U.S. Ryder Cup team — from No. 18 to No. 6 — there are still technically enough points out there for him to do it.
The way the Ryder Cup works is each player accumulates points throughout the year. For every $1,000 in earnings at a standard PGA Tour event, a player gets one point. Majors are weighted more heavily. Winners of majors get two points per $1,000 earned at the event they won. The point distribution also favors players who make the cut at majors.
Finau still has the Open Championship next week — the final major of the year — and the playoff ahead of him. So there are still enough point-heavy events for him to make up ground. The top six in the point standings earn an automatic bid to the team. The final six spots are picked at the captain’s discretion — regardless of points.
“One of my goals was to make the team through points,” said Finau, in Utah this week to host a clinic at a 5 For The Fight charity golf event.
But just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean it’s easy. Finau will have to play well and possibly contend in these two critical tournaments to climb that many spots. And up until this point, he hasn’t played well in majors this year.
He tied for 72nd at the PGA Championship and finished outside the top 25 at the Masters. He flirted with contending at the U.S. Open through the first two days. But then he faded on the weekend and ended tied for 32nd.
He hasn’t putted well enough of late. He lost over two strokes to the rest of the field in putting at the Charles Schwab Invitational in May when he missed the cut. It is tough to win majors when the putter isn’t falling.
“I haven’t putted the way that I know I can,” Finau said in June while preparing for the Rocket Mortgage Classic. “Outside of Mexico [where he won] I haven’t really putted great. But I continue to look at the technique.”
So unless the recent trends change, Finau will have to look at qualifying for the Ryder Cup through a less optimal path — through a captain’s pick.
It isn’t unfamiliar territory. He was the captain’s pick in 2018 (finishing 15th points) and 2021 (finishing seventh).
But this year, there might be some added angst to waiting to be one of Zach Johnson’s six picks. There is a crowded field Johnson will be choosing from, and it’s getting more crowded as time goes on.
Three months ago, Finau was seen as a likely lock to get a captain’s choice if he didn’t qualify automatically. He was on the Ryder Cup team that won in a landslide in 2021 at Whistling Straits, and was part of the core that would go to Rome in September to win the United States’ first cup in Europe in 30 years.
But then fringe candidates for the team started to win. Wyndham Clark won the U.S. Open, pushing him to No. 2 in the standings and making him an automatic qualifier. Rickie Fowler was in the final grouping at the US Open and then won the Rocket Mortgage, pushing him up inside the top 12.
All of a sudden, Finau’s spot as a captain pick became less certain. Heading into this weekend, Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Max Homa, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Clark would be the automatic qualifiers. It would leave Johnson to likely choose from Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Cam Young, Sam Burns, Keegan Bradley and a few other options for the last spot.
“We are still just on the start line, more of less, the way I see it,” Johnson said in June of how he will decide. “Nothing of any significance has been decided. Or even had the opportunity to [be decided].”
Johnson hasn’t said explicitly what he values most in how he will pick the spots. Some captains go with chemistry and pick somebody who would fit the team well. Some value stats and current form. Some want guys with a game that will fit the course.
This year’s cup with be at Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome.
“When it comes to those elements, they’re all important,”Johnson said. “I want camaraderie and chemistry in the team room. I want ownership by the team. I want horses for courses. I want guys that can navigate Marco Simone in September.”
Finau has the Ryder Cup experience and chemistry with this team. He is 3-3 overall in his two Ryder Cups and 1-1 in singles play. Out of the non-automatic qualifiers at the moment, only Spieth, Thomas and Bradley have more Ryder Cup wins.
But looking at current form, Finau hasn’t played well since May. By strokes gained, he’s outside the top 25 in the U.S. in the last three months. While he has two wins on the PGA Tour this season, he has been hit or miss on the rest of his events.
“Little disappointed in my consistency,” Finau said. “Haven’t played as consistently as I have played in the past. But again, any time you win more than once in a season, I think you can call it a successful season.”
Meanwhile, Fowler has arguably been the best American golfer outside of Scheffler the last three months, with over two strokes gained on the field. Denny McCarthy, who currently sits at No. 15 in Ryder Cup points, also has a case to be made in the last three months.
As for course fit, Johnson said he will look for accurate drivers. That fits Finau’s game, but it also will fit others vying for the final spots.
“You have to hit fairways,” Johnson said. “It puts a really strong emphasis on the first shot.”
But as the debate will heat up in the final month to see who will make the captain’s picks, Finau is looking to do the easy thing, the thing he insists is still possible. Make the team automatically. It will likely hinge on how he does next week at the Royal Liverpool Golf Course for the Open.
“It is a golf course I’ve never played before,” Finau said. “Definitely hoping to peak.”
