NEW YORK — Brandt Snedeker had nothing more than big hopes and another strong finish when he left the TPC Boston, expecting to wait deep into the night for a phone call from Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III that would determine if he was on the U.S. team.
“I had no clue one way or another,” Snedeker said Tuesday. “Got on the plane, got here to Indianapolis and got a voicemail from Davis just asking if I brought my putter from Boston and if I wanted to be on the team. I was just so excited. Couldn’t hardly sleep last night. Just a huge, huge thing for my career.”
Snedeker was among four players whom Love selected to fill out his 12-man Ryder Cup team. The captain also took a pair of veterans, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker, and Dustin Johnson, who showed the hottest hand over the past two weeks and who Love said was “perfect for Medinah.”
The Ryder Cup is Sept. 28-30 at Medinah outside Chicago, which has hosted the PGA Championship twice since 1999 and is known as a power golf course. Tiger Woods won two majors there.
More than power, however, Love emphasized putting.
Stricker is regarded as one of the best in the game, and Snedeker is not far behind, as he showed at the British Open and during his charge up the leaderboard the past two weeks at Bethpage Black and the TPC Boston.
“I’ve been saying a lot that we need hot putters, and there really has not been a hotter putter on tour since the British Open,” Love said, referring to Snedeker, one of four Ryder Cup rookies for the U.S.
There was just as much talk about who didn’t make the team.
Hunter Mahan, whose two PGA Tour wins this year included the Match Play Championship when he beat Rory McIlroy, was leading the Ryder Cup standings after the Masters and still didn’t qualify for the eight automatic spots.
He had to rely on a pick after he missed the cut in the PGA Championship, and then he missed the cut at The Barclays and was in the middle of the pack at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
