The urgings of the respective Ryder Cup captains – Europe’s Luke Donald and the USA’s Keegan Bradly – for the bulk of their teams to be competitive ahead of next week’s showdown in Bethpage were rewarded at both the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour and the Procore Championship on the PGA Tour with generally strong showings, albeit with the one-two finish of Scottie Scheffler and Ben Griffin in California providing the greater momentum.
Ironically enough, the continued strong late-season form of Alex Norén – who added the BMW PGA to his recent British Masters win – would suggest the Swede, who is a vice-captain to Donald in New York, would be even more valuable as a player than as part of the backroom team.
Norén’s hot streak of form saw him move to 18th in the updated world rankings following Wentworth, which puts him ahead of Shane Lowry (24th), Tyrrell Hatton (25th), Matt Fitzpatrick (29th) and Rasmus Hojgaard (57th) on those OWGR standings. Indeed, Norén is also ahead of a number of Americans with Cameron Young (20th), Bryson DeChambeau (21st), Patrick Cantlay 22nd) and Sam Burns (23rd) all behind him.
Anyway, the cards were already dealt ahead of Norén’s upswing and his role in Bethpage as one of Donald’s deputies is likely to be a significant one.
RM Block
“I think my role (at Bethpage) is an extra set of eyes for Luke. He’s doing the most part, and the other captains have done a lot of work. Knowing about a month and a half ago I was going to be a vice-captain, I asked Luke, ‘what do you want out of me?’ Obviously I’m not going to coach or captain much,” said Norén.
“(He said) ‘You’re going to be an extra set of eyes over a few players and be of any service they need’. You know, I’ve only played one time but I know it’s different to play a Ryder Cup than anything else. I’ll do whatever they ask me to do. I’m really happy to be part of the team because I think Bethpage will be an incredible venue for the Ryder Cup.
“I think we have a great team and I think it’s the right 12 guys that are playing. I showed good form of late, but it was the wrong time, and I didn’t really show the form I needed to show when I started playing. Too many kind of bad tournaments in the middle of the season, then way better the last six starts.”
Norén closed out his PGA Tour season with two top-10s (seventh in the 3M Open, third in the Wyndham) before returning to the DP World Tour to claim two wins in three outings, in the British Masters and the BMW PGA, which moves him to fifth on the Race to Dubai order of merit.
The Swede flew from London to New York with the Ryder Cup team and his fellow vice-captains for an advance visit to Bethpage, with his focus entirely on his new role.
The two tournaments on either side of the Atlantic served the respective captains well, with three players – Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton – from Donald’s team finishing in the top-five at Wentworth.
The Americans, who learnt a harsh lesson two years ago in Rome where a lack of tournament sharpness following the FedEx Cup playoffs was apparent, responded strongly to Bradley’s request for a big turnout in the Procore.
Scheffler’s sixth win of the season came at the expense of Griffin, who has enjoyed a career-best season with two wins of his own.
“Anytime you finish second it sucks, but I’m so grateful to be playing golf, so grateful to have opportunities down the stretch. I just need to execute a little bit better,” said Griffin, who’s gearing up for his Ryder Cup debut.
“[Scheffler]’s a hell of a player. He’s got the resume that’s better than pretty much everyone here. It’s all good, I’ll get to work, I’ll look at things and I’ll practice hard this week and make sure I’m ready for the Ryder Cup.”
How the Ryder Cup players performed in their final tournaments before Bethpage:
Europe
BMW PGA Championship
Tied-5th: Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton
Tied-13th: Jon Rahm
Tied-20th: Ludvig Aberg, Rory McIlroy
Tied-46th: Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry
Tied-61st: Justin Rose
Tied-74th: Robert MacIntyre
Missed Cut: Rasmus Hojgaard
DNP: Sepp Straka
USA
Procore Championship
1st: Scottie Scheffler
2nd: Ben Griffin
6th: JJ Spaun
Tied-9th: Cameron Young
Tied-13th: Sam Burns
Tied-19th: Russell Henley
Tied-30th: Patrick Cantlay
Tied-43rd: Harris English, Collin Morikawa
69th: Justin Thomas
DNP: Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau
