Bradley chooses Young for Ryder Cup team

We now know whether Cameron Young will be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

The former Wake Forest standout was selected as a captain’s pick. Captain Keegan Bradley, who made the announcement Wednesday morning, will not play.

Bradley chose Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns and Cameron Young with his six selections. Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau made the team by finishing in the top six of the qualifying points list.

“I’m 100-percent certain this is the right choice,” Bradley said at the announcement. “I want to be the best captain I can be.”

Many prognosticators (not TriadGolf.com) had speculated that Bradley, who finished 11th on the list would pick himself for the team.

“The decision was made a while ago that I wasn’t playing,” said Bradley. “We had the team set. We weren’t scrambling at all.

“This was a really tough decision. There was a point this season where I was playing [after winning the Travelers Championship in June] and all these guys stepped up in a major way and played their way onto this team.”

The Ryder Cup matches are scheduled for Sept. 26-28 at Bethpage Black, a course where Young won the New York State Open in 2017. The Ryder Cup spot is the first for Young, who played in the 2022 Presidents Cups.

Young had an outstanding summer, including a victory at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield. His strong play has come after making former Wake Forest teammate Kyle Sterbinsky his caddie. He also switched to a prototype Titleist Pro V1 golf ball.

The 28-year-old Young, 14th in Ryder Cup points, seemed to campaign for a Ryder Cup spot last week.

“I think recent form is kind of a hard one to deny,” Young said on Friday. “Aside from that it’s obviously my home state, it’s a golf course I love. It’s almost exclusively a major championship venue, and my major record is pretty good. So I think there’s a few points that if I had to make my case to [captain Bradley], those are things I’d like him to know.”

Bradley was 11th on the list. Maverick McNealy (10th) and Brian Harman (12th) were not selected. The European team will be announced Sept. 1.