OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Bryson DeChambeau is returning to the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2021 after none of the Americans moved past him in the standings Sunday in the final weekend of qualifying for the six automatic spots on the U.S. team.
DeChambeau will be the second LIV Golf League player in as many Ryder Cups for the Americans, following Brooks Koepka as a captain’s pick for the 2023 matches at Marco Simone in Italy.
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley had indicated DeChambeau was going to be on the team either way when the U.S. takes on Europe this fall at Bethpage Black on New York’s Long Island. The U.S. Open champion a year ago, DeChambeau earned big points by playing in the last group at the Masters in April, when he tied for fifth, and finishing as a runner-up in the PGA Championship the following month.
The 31-year-old DeChambeau wound up at No. 6 in the standings after tying for 14th at the LIV Indianapolis tournament, the final individual event of that tour’s 2025 season.
Harris English moved past him with his tie for 12th in the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship to finish at No. 5, qualifying for a Ryder Cup via points for the first time. The 36-year-old Baylor School graduate was a captain’s pick for the 2021 matches at Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits.
The leading six players for the Americans were Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, English and DeChambeau. All those spots — except for DeChambeau’s — were practically set going into the final qualifying weekend.
Justin Thomas would have needed to finish around the top 10 at the BMW Championship to supplant DeChambeau. Instead, he will need to rely on a captain’s pick for the second straight Ryder Cup.
The Ryder Cup is Sept. 26-28. Bradley will announce six captain’s picks on Wednesday, Aug. 27. That comes after next weekend’s LIV Michigan tournament to determine the league’s team champion for the season and the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup-deciding Tour Championship at Atlanta’s East Lake.
“Most years it seems very obvious,” Scheffler, who won the BMW Championship Sunday at Caves Valley near Baltimore, said of the U.S. team. “Once we continue to keep playing next week, it will become more obvious. Right now, I think a couple of spots are still up for grabs.”
The Tour Championship in some ways becomes a final audition for Bradley, who is considering taking himself as a pick after finishing 11th in the standings.
Thomas was No. 7, followed by Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Maverick McNealy, Bradley, Brian Harman, Andrew Novak, Cameron Young and Patrick Cantlay.
All of the potential captain’s picks will be at East Lake for the Tour Championship, which tees off Thursday.
Europe’s qualifying ends next weekend, too, at the DP World Tour’s British Masters; players like Ireland’s Shane Lowry at the Tour Championship and England’s Tyrrell Hatton at LIV Michigan are not eligible for points. That makes Hatton at No. 5 a lock to be on another team. Lowry, who replaced Austria’s Sepp Straka at No. 6, can only be passed by Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard next week.
Luke Donald also has six captain’s picks.