Zach Johnson’s captaincy of the 2023 U.S Ryder Cup may have ended in colossal disappointment – a lopsided defeat at the hands of Team Europe – but it gave birth to one unforgettable line: “You don’t leave JT at home.”
That was Johnson’s response to his decision to make Justin Thomas, who was mired in a slump and didn’t even qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs last year, a captain’s pick for his 12-man team that represented the U.S. at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome.
Jim Furyk, who is back for a second tour of duty as U.S. Presidents Cup captain after losing in that role in 2018 in France at the Ryder Cup, must have missed the memo because he decided to go with Brian Harman, Max Homa, Russell Henley, Tony Finau, Sam Burns and Keegan Bradley.
It led Golf Digest’s Shane Ryan to frame his question to Furyk during a press conference on Tuesday perfectly: “A year ago everybody was asking Zach Johnson how could you possibly have taken Justin Thomas. Now I’m asking you how can you possibly have left Justin Thomas off the team?” he said.
Thomas still hasn’t returned to the winner’s circle but he managed to record five top-10 finishes this season and shot the seventh-best gross score at the Tour Championship last weekend, a tournament that Homa didn’t even qualify for. The fact that Thomas was 19th in points is irrelevant other than he failed to qualify automatically for the top 6 and put himself in a position where he needed a pick. (The whole reason for allowing picks is so the captain doesn’t have to take Nos. 7-12 in points based on two years of performance in stroke play for a match-play competition and yet Furyk selected Nos. 7-12.)
In Furyk’s defense, Thomas is far from playing like the two-time major winner and former world No. 1 and maybe the analytics that are treated like state secrets screamed that Homa or Henley were the better puzzle pieces — in Furyk’s parlance — but Thomas’s game still matches up against the best and its trending in the right direction of late. Plus, he’s got the “It factor” in match-play events.
More: Meet the six Team USA 2024 Presidents Cup captain’s picks
Furyk’s reply to Ryan’s question was largely a non-answer so let’s move on but he did give a better explanation on Golf Channel for his decision, saying of JT, “He’s a great team room guy, He’s going to play on a ton of these teams in the future as well, and one day be a captain and a great one. Tough omission, but…
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