Tour Confidential: Ryder Cup qualifications, Bubble watch and more

Check every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors while breaking down the most popular topics in the sport and participating in the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week we are discussing the American Ryder Cup Auto qualifications, who may be able to collect a pick from a captain, Liv’s championship format and more.

Scottie Scheffler won the second stage of the FedEx Cup-Play-Offs, the BMW championship, but we now also know the six car qualifications for the US Ryder Cup team: Scheffler, JJ Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, BRYSON. What is your biggest collection meal this week?

Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens). That we can add an item to the list of certainties of life: death, taxes and Scottie Scheffler. But also (despite Scheffler) the Europeans have a stronger team of automatic qualifications than the US. Anyway on paper.

James Colgan, News and Features Editor (@Jamescolgan26): Unlike Scheffler 4x-in Are Ryder Cup counterparts in points? I learned that the Americans are lucky, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa did not start the Deschambeau. Bryson was a slot all the time and his status of auto-qualified people is crashing what a tired news cycle could have been about his merit.

Nick Piastowski, senior editor (@nickpia): Scottie Scheffler is real, really, really good. And he shows that this might take a while. And that Robert Macintyre versus the Bethpage boys and girls will be very nice. (But let’s keep it clean, gang.)

The American captain Keegan Bradley will complete his team with six Captain’s Picks made after next week’s tour championships. That means that East Lake is the most important for which Ryder Cup hopeful?

Josh Sens: It is a throwing for me between Cam Young and Ben Griffin. Both have shown a good shape this year, especially recently young. Young in particular sounded like a man who strived after he had passed Rome and now standing with the Ryder Cup to his home and a course where he won the state.

Colgan: I think it is Griffin, which is safe in the top 12 but wants to remove all doubts. But don’t leave Sam Burns away, who was on Sunday in the 16th on the 16th in the American ranking and the advantage of earlier Ryder Cup experience and a close friendship with Scottie Scheffler to help his candidacy.

Piastowski: It is the captain himself. Finish in the top 10 and Bradley picks himself three days later. Finish 28th, and there is some doubt. A ho-hum finish at the BMW did not inspire him that he was selected, but a strong run on the Tour Championship Will.

Sam Burns finished T4 at the BMW and Rickie Fowler finished T7, although both, especially Fowler, are later in the ranking of Ryder Cup. But if you are a captain, how can you balance someone higher in the rankings versus someone with a better recent form?

Sens: As a Tiebreaker I would look further back in the historic record. How did they perform in this kind of quick cooking points?. Burns went 1 and 2 in Rome and generally did not cut the profile of a murderer closer. Fowler has a career 3-9-5 Ryder Cup File. In short, I would probably look beyond both

Colgan: I think the goal is to choose the twelve best golfers. If no. 11 on your list suddenly cannot break 90, I would think of recent form. Otherwise I would let the last 6 months serve as a much better test.

Piastowski: I would definitely take a look – but why not at all? If you have bought that far, you don’t have to engage things. That said, I might lean to the hotter hand with picks 11 and 12 then go with the points system (unless the hot hand is of course also 11 or 12). Burns also has the advantage that they are good friends with the world no. 1, and you want to keep that man happy.

Joaquin Niemann won five of the 13 events of Liv Golf in 2025, but it was Jon Rahm who claimed the seasonal individual championship of Liv after a second place on Sunday in Indianapolis. Are you good with the format and Rahm wins the general title, or Niemann loses, despite the fact that he will win five times something is wrong?

Sens: That is not good. Prioritization for prize money above persistent performance is not the way to measure a seasonal reward, but that seems to be the case here.

Colgan: I would say that the “play-offs” of Golf need some over the board, mainly because the vast majority of people who read this story do not understand how the PGA Tour of Liv end-season events work. The late season may not require advanced mathematics to understand … and given the Rahm/Niemann -discoverto, Liv’s after season may first have to be recorded.

Piastowski: I think the question is, what do you like nicer consistency at top level or victories mixed with tires for 33rd? I would tend to give more points for victories, but Niemann also had five Finishes bound for the 20th or worse this year. Rahm did not get worse than 11th in the meantime, but never won. Certainly a weird one. However, it was close.

With the conclusion of the individual LIV championship, four players will now be relegated for next season. Now a few years after LIV’s size, does relegation work? What does it get right or wrong?

Sens: It works in theory. Relegation adds low pressure and gives fans a story to be followed that Liv needs as much as it can get. In practice, however, a player who is degraded can be picked up again, as happened with Branden Grace last year. He performed bad enough to be fell at the end of 2024, but he was popular enough to pick up on time to play in 2025. That is a relegation system without many teeth.

Colgan: Agreed, sens. Relegation as a idea is pretty sweet. But I’m not sure if we’ve seen it in practice.

Piastowski: It is waiting for me. This was also in place last year and players came back. But if Liv holds on to it, it makes the competition more of an open store, which is the goal. Whoever takes on those available positions will also be interesting – just like any contract negotiations outside the season with some of the largest stars in LIV.

Mason Howell won the American amateur on Sunday and beat Jackson Herrington 7 and 6 in the Olympic club. It was an eventful week in San Francisco, headed by Howell’s victory, but also by the Run by John Daly II, the rise of a Diii Underdog, raw crowds (and interviews!) About a local favorite and more. What was your most memorable moment from the US AM?

Colgan: Jimmy Abdo !!!! The 4,292E ranking amateur in the world was in the quarter-finals round of the largest amateur event in sport. I like an underdog story, and I am not sure if I have heard a better one in 2025 than ABDOs, whose last four years left him from his secondary school travel team and D1 offers without in the transfer portal. He let many people remember his name at O-Club.

Piastowski: That I should try a hamburger dog soon. Maybe joke. Colgan is right about ABDO – it is one of the reasons why the amateur is great. But I loved the crowd that Niall Shiels Donegan Drew and his wild interviews after the round (which were admirably performed by Brentley Romine from Golf Channel). Another appeal of the amateur is the density of the event, and this was certain that.

Sens: The crowd that Hero (and semi-finalist) drawn Niall Shiels-Donegan all week drew all week. Big and noisy. And the pure joy that Shiels-Donegan demonstrated when setting up a coupling show for them. He didn’t win, but he was the story of the week.

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