Ryder Cup: Patrick Cantlay grabbed the final automatic spot for Team USA | Golf News

Patrick Cantlay secured his Ryder Cup debut by winning the BMW Championship, where Sergio Garcia and Erik van Rooyen enjoyed strong finishes to reserve their seats in the 30-man field for next week’s Tour Tour Championship.

Patrick Cantlay’s sensational victory at the BMW Championship brought him his sixth and final automatic place in qualifying for the American Ryder Cup team.

Cantlay arrived in Caves Valley in 11th place in the standings, but his birdie in the sixth hole for the play-off against Bryson DeChambeau pushed him five places in the standings and knocked Tony Finau out of the side, for now.

Cantlay also revealed that he expects Fred Couples to join Steve Stricker’s team after exchanging messages with the former Masters champion earlier this week.

“I’m excited,” Cantlay said. “Fred Couples texted me this week and said he looks like he’s going to be one of the assistant captains, so he’s going to be worse too. I’ve obviously talked to Xander (Schauffele) and JT (Justin Thomas) and Jordan, and we are very much looking forward to it.

“It’s nice to get into the points and I’m really looking forward to the whole event. I’ve heard so much and watched him grow up. I’m sure it will be all I imagined and more. I’ll lock myself in there and hope to take the win.”

Finau seems to be key to keeping his place on the sidelines as he won his first win in more than five years at The Northern Trust last week, and Steve Stricker was due to announce his six captaincy elections on Sept. 8.

Open champion Collin Morikawa finished at the top of the standings ahead of Dustin Johnson, DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas, while Ryder Cup strongholds Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed among the stars are now relying on them to be declared a substitute for the Whistling Straits competition.

Cantlay’s incredible victory in Baltimore also brought him to the top of the FedExCup rankings ahead of next season’s season finale at the Tour Championships in Atlanta.

With a scheduled scoring system, Cantlay will fight on East Lake as early as 10th under nominal on Thursday, and Tony Finau will start with eight below.

Reed, who was discharged from the hospital after being treated for bilateral pneumonia, won 30th and last place on the field for the Tour Championship even though he missed the last three tournaments due to illness.

It looked like the Masters champion would miss 2018 until the unfortunate KH Lee broke through the last hole of the BMW Championship, a mistake that dropped him to 31st place in the FedExCup standings.

Sergio Garcia and Erik van Rooyen were the big drivers of the penultimate tournament of the PGA Tour season, with the Spaniard jumping 16 places to 28th after winning sixth place in Caves Valley.

Garcia was one place behind the South African, who finished 65th, winning fifth place and moving up 18 places in the FedExCup rankings – both started the Tour Championship at the level.

Two-time FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy has improved to 16th place with his fourth-place finish in Baltimore, and he will also believe his chances of catching up on the eight shots he needs to fix Cantlay and get another $ 15 million bonus.