Team USA captain Zach Johnson knew he would have a difficult task choosing the six Ryder Cup wildcard picks, given the quality he had at his disposal. Zach Johnson emphasized in a media interview how difficult it was to choose the best.
During the pre-conference, he gave a comment for each golfer, and Jordan Spieth was among the first to comment. One of the reasons why he chose him is Spieth's consistency. "Great putter, great short game. Seems he’s never out of the hole.
I’ve been on the bad end of that myself. Great match play player, very consistent year, and we’ve seen that in the last so many odd years. Just seems to bring his best out in the hardest of situations. All the intangibles you want as a teammate and as a player, a lot of heart, a lot of spirit, a lot of experience and one of our - I would say one of our stalwarts on Team USA."- he said, as quoted by golfmonthly.com!
Sam Burns: Stud athlete, number one
Sam Burns is one of the players who caused controversy among many. A large number of golf fans were against this decision. Johnson believes that Burns is a great golfer who can give a lot to this team.
In addition, Sam's teammates wanted to have such a teammate next to them. "Stud athlete, number one. Won the World Golf Match Play Championships this year. Tremendous putter, which is always good in a Ryder Cup. To say that he meshes well with the other guys on the team, again, would be a massive understatement.
And a versatile teammate. Guys want to be around him. Guys want to play with him. It’s nice locking hands with somebody, locking shoulders with somebody that you want to be around, and Sam fits that to a tee."