Jackson Koibun’s 3M Open victory moves the 21-year-old rookie up 38 spots on the U.S. Presidents Cup points list. He currently sits at No. 51, behind names like Matt McCarty, Stephen Fisk and Max McGreevy.
The preliminaries, of course, mean Koivun has only been a professional for three tournaments.
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Will Koibun fit into captain Brandt Snedeker’s 12-man squad for this September’s game in Medina?
Before we answer that question, let’s start with the most recent rankings.
1. Scotty Scheffler
2. Cameron Young
3. Russell Henry
4. Sam Burns
5. Ben Griffin
6. Collin Morikawa
7. Chris Gottapp
8. JJ Spahn
9. Wyndham Clark
10. Justin Thomas
11. Xander Schauffele
12. Akshay Bhatia
13. Jacob Bridgeman
14. Harris English
15. Ryan Gerrard
Scheffler and Young are strong contenders, but something extraordinary will have to happen for Henry and Burns to drop out of the top six respectively by August 23, when half the squad is finalized after the BMW Championship.
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Griffin and Morikawa are also likely safe, whether they qualify automatically or are named captains. Griffin has shown a comeback, finishing in the top 10 four times since late April, but Morikawa’s momentum at the beginning of the year has stalled due to a hip injury.
Same goes for Gotterup, who has won three times this year, and Clark, who just won the U.S. Open twice. Both will remain on the team as long as they are healthy.
And given his 10-4 record in the President’s Cup and the fact that he finished T-18 or better in all four majors this year, there’s no chance the veteran Schauffele will leave home.
That’s nine names, meaning three spots are theoretically still up for grabs.
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Below is a quick breakdown of the top candidates for these open spots, sorted by top of the points list.
Span: Last year’s U.S. Open champion went 2-1 in his Ryder Cup debut last fall and also won the Valero Texas Open in April. He has three other top 10s this year, two of which came in signature events. However, he missed seven cuts against Spawn, three of which were in major tournaments, which allowed him to play in the British Open (T-40) over the weekend. Perhaps one more player in the top 10 will solidify Spawn’s place on the team.
Thomas: Like Schauffele, JT also has a great record in the Presidents Cup (10-3-2). He also had a good run to start the summer with seven consecutive top-25 finishes from Cadillac to Travelers. He has missed just one game this year, and that was at API, his first start since undergoing microscopic discectomy last November. DataGolf currently ranks him as the No. 13 eligible American player, but like Spaun, a strong showing in the playoffs will likely see him join the team.
Bhatia: Now comes the interesting part. That’s because Batia won at API as part of a wild spring run that included T-3 at Phoenix, T-6 at Pebble, T-16 at Riviera and T-13 at The Players. since then? Bhatia has only one player (T-5, Travelers) and five MCs finish in the top 10 in 11 matches worldwide.
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Bridgeman: Like Bhatia, Bridgman did some early damage with a Genesis win and a tie for fifth at TPC Sawgrass. He has only missed once all year, but has only finished in the top 25 twice since The Players.
Gerald: Although he has yet to win on the PGA Tour, Gerrard has three runner-up finishes this year, plus a T-9 in his most recent Open. The problem is that in addition to his six top-11 finishes this year, he has only finished in the top-25 once in 15 starts.
English: Does the team need another veteran presence? England have nine top-25 finishes this year, but just one top-10 finish and missing out on qualification for both summer open tournaments will hurt them.
Maverick McNeely: He currently sits 16th in points and, like English, has nine players in the top 25 this year, greening his DataGolf profile. But could his last finish have been better than a T-10? Almost a year ago, third in a BMW last year.
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Patrick Cantlay: Although he’s one spot below McNeely, Cantlay isn’t used to these types of team events either. He’s cooled down a bit since finishing in the top 12 four years in a row, including a T-12 finish at the Masters, and it may be more beneficial for him to opt for a more long-term play when it comes to a potential eventual captaincy.
Patrick Reed: The current Race to Dubai No. 1 will be eligible for nomination after his LIV suspension ends next month. He won two in three starts on this year’s DP World Tour, then added a T-12 at the Masters and a T-10 at the PGA. The downside here is he hasn’t finished in the top 10 since the PGA.
I figured I might as well stop before diving into Kurt Kitayama’s numbers, and Koibun is among the 10 names for three spots in this exercise.
Koibun only played in three tournaments as a professional, but missed out on a spot in his professional debut with John Deere before finishing T-10 with Isco. He owned a T-23 as an amateur at this summer’s U.S. Open and had four top-11s (T-11, Deer) in last summer’s PGA Tour start as part of the Presidents Cup qualifying slot. T-6, Isco. T-5, Windham; T-4, Procore.
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He won six times this spring at Auburn, including winning the SEC Championship by seven strokes.
He ranks 30th in the data golf rankings, ahead of Bhatia, Bridgman and Reed.
When Ludwig Oberg was selected for the 2023 European Ryder Cup team just months after turning pro, his resume was objectively less impressive than Koibun’s. At the time, he had only finished in the top 10 once on the PGA Tour, finishing T-4 at Deer in 2023 and another T-4 at the DPWT’s Czech Masters before Luke Donald called and offered Oberg a spot in the wake of his win at the European Masters. Oberg also had never played in the majors, much less was a low amateur like Koibun at Shinnecock, and he won two fewer games in his final semester of college.
Still, Oberg, now 4-4 with two Ryder Cup appearances, is gaining valuable experience to one day take over the reins from the likes of Rory McIlroy.
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Scheffler’s American core isn’t all that old, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have Koibun, who has the best chance of becoming a future superstar, gain some early Cup experience at Medina. It’s not like he’s a complete wild card either. It’s just his body of work – whatever comes out in late August will be a small sample size.
So what’s the verdict? Koibun probably sits behind Spawn and Thomas in the top standings, but there’s a very good argument that Koibun is better than, or at least as good as, the rest of the names when it comes to who would fill that No. 12 spot if the team were to make a decision today.
In any case, Sunez’s job became increasingly difficult.
