Brandt Snedeker says Presidents Cup roster is ‘wide open,’ dismisses need for youth

In less than a month, the six automatic qualifiers for the Presidents Cup U.S. Team will be finalized. In less than two months, the Americans will arrive at Medinah Country Club in Chicago to defend their long-held dominance.

Right now, much is still uncertain.

Speaking to media ahead of the Wyndham Championship, Presidents Cup U.S. Captain Brandt Snedeker said there’s “probably 20, 22 guys that have a chance of making this team right now, so it’s kind of wide open.”

It speaks to the nature of exercise, as Snedeker will keep his options open as long as possible to ensure he amasses a team that is in form and a fit for Medinah. It’s also indicative of his thinking. Each captain has a view on how their team should be assembled and what they prioritize in arriving at those conclusions.

Snedeker made his beliefs crystal clear.

“At the end of the day you have to start with the results,” he said. “You can love a player all you want to, but he's got to go out there and prove it under pressure. This is the way it is.”

Snedeker answered the question during a broader back-and-forth about Jackson Koivun, the hotshot 21-year-old rookie who outdueled Scottie Scheffler two weeks ago at the 3M Open, winning his first TOUR event in his third TOUR start as a pro. Snedeker played a practice round with Koivun on Tuesday at Sedgefield Country Club and left incredibly impressed with Koivun’s present and future prospects.

“I don't think my game has probably ever been as good as his,” Snedeker said. “He's a generational player.”

That opinion is shared by many in and around golf, which led to the natural question in the aftermath of his win in Minnesota: Should Koivun make the Presidents Cup U.S. Team?

It’s a popular theme this time of year when younger, less proven players make charges in the summer before team events. Should the incoming captain of the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup team think beyond the present event and consider the impact for future team events by selecting a player that forecasts to be a regular for the Americans for the next decade? Or should they focus solely on who the best 12 players are at that specific moment in time?

“I think the golf dictates who needs to be on the team,” Snedeker said when directly asked if he felt the need to get “new, young blood” on his roster. “I'm not into, oh, let's just take a young kid because we need a young kid on the team. That doesn't make any sense to me. I think you take the best players who give you the best opportunity of winning.”

That doesn’t rule out Koivun for the American squad. It will just require Koivun to prove he’s one of the best 12 Americans playing right now. That starts with qualifying for the Playoffs. At No. 70 in the FedExCup, Koivun is currently the last golfer projected to make it to Memphis and he will likely need to make the cut to maintain that position.

“For Jackson, it's a unique case because he really hasn't played that many events as a professional,” Snedeker said. “Obviously played a bunch of events as an amateur. You look at everything. You talk to people around him, you talk to other players who have played with him, try to get a good sense of who he is and what makes him tick and then go from there.”

That’s the exhaustive process that Snedeker will take for Koivun and the rest of the potential members of the U.S. squad. The six automatic qualifiers will lock after the BMW Championship in three weeks, with Snedeker’s captain’s picks expected shortly after.

“I'm excited about the decisions we're going to have to make going forward because at the end of the day, we're going to have a great choice of whoever makes the team,” Snedeker said.