Watson Chooses Ryder Cup Veterans as Captain's Picks


Tom Watson selected three players with previous experience as his three captain's picks for the 2014 U.S. Ryder Cup team. The trio includes Keegan Bradley, Hunter Mahan and Webb Simpson.

Watson made the announcement at Studio 8H in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, home to the long-running NBC late-night comedy program, "Saturday Night Live."

The Americans will seek to regain the Cup when they play the Europeans September 26-28 at Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland.

Bradley, Mahan and Simpson will join teammates Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Jimmy Walker, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and Zach Johnson, who all qualified for the biennial competition through a points system.

Walker, Spieth and Reed will be making their Ryder Cup debuts.

This will be Mahan's third appearance; he played on the victorious 2008 American squad and the losing team in 2010. Simpson and Bradley were both on the 2012 squad, which lost at Medinah near Chicago after the Europeans rallied in Sunday's singles.

Mahan knows that the Europeans - which have won five of the past six matches - will again field a formidable contingent. Their team was completed Tuesday with the announcement of Paul McGinley's captain's picks. The 12 players include: Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, Sweden's Henrik Stenson, France's Victor Dubuisson, Wales' Jamie Donaldson, Spain's Sergio Garcia, England's Justin Rose, Germany's Martin Kaymer, Denmark's Thomas Bjorn and Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell. The captain's selections are England's Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, and Scotland's Stephen Gallacher.

"I think redemption is going to be a strong word amongst all the players," said Mahan, who is 3-2-3 in Ryder Cup matches. "Europe has flat out kicked our butts over the last 10 or 15 years and that's just the way it is. Everyone is going to work extremely hard over the next 24 days getting ready for it. We are all going to be mentally prepared for the challenge, because we have a great challenge ahead of us."

Bradley was 3-1 at Medinah and proved to be a formable teammate of Mickelson's; the duo went 3-0. "Keegan has the ability to hit the ball a long way," Watson said. "Now, Keegan, he can go real low. He certainly teamed up great with Phil Mickelson. There are a lot of great pluses about Keegan, but the most important thing he brings to it is his unbridled passion to play on the Ryder Cup team."

Bradley told reporters in Boston that he had one eye on making the Ryder Cup team even while competing in the Deutsche Bank Championship. "I made no secret how badly I want to go back and win the Ryder Cup," the Vermont native said. "This is a redemption year for a lot of guys who were on the team (in 2012)."

Mahan won the first event in the four-tournament FedEx Cup Playoffs - The Barclays in New Jersey - and has been playing well of late. He's also shown toughness in match-play competitions, winning the 2012 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

"Match play seems to be his forte," Watson said. "Match play is a little different than medal play. You have somebody who can understand how to play not only the course but the player. That's an advantage. Some people, they don't shine in match play but Hunter Mahan is that person . . . Hunter also has had a wonderful stretch of golf recently. He is really, really a great ball striker, and he's coming into his own right now."

One player Watson overlooked was Chris Kirk, winner of Monday's Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston. Watson preferred to use his captain's picks on players with longer, more proven track records. "That was a snapshot," he said of his decision to pass on Kirk.

Simpson, at No. 32, is the lowest-ranked player on the American squad. The 29-year-old North Carolinian's most recent victory came last October in the Shriners Hospital for Children Open. Among his four titles is the 2010 U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco.