Will Team Europe ignore one of its hottest players?

If you look hard enough, it’s not difficult to see. The 2025 Ryder Cup is playing out a lot like 2023. Just inversely. 

Remember 2023, when Rickie Fowler romped through the summer events? Jordan Spieth won the spring, too. Brooks Koepka added his fifth major championship in May and Wyndham Clark fully arrived as a major champion just a month later. Things looked great for the Americans that summer. 

It was difficult to see the cracks, but not long later they started to show. Fowler peaked when he won. Koepka peaked when he won. Clark peaked when he won. These surefire American players were not the same players after a grueling summer schedule. And then there was Justin Thomas, who couldn’t make a cut in a major and couldn’t crack the FedEx Cup playoffs — being selected over the much hotter players like Cam Young and Keegan Bradley. (Two names of the moment right now!)

When those Americans arrived in Rome — admittedly jet-lagged and ill-prepared — Clark played worse than anyone in the event. Spieth was the next-worst. Thomas was only better than one European that week. Koepka and Fowler lost strokes to the field. If you had to place blame on anyone in particular, it was the players who shined early in the season and earned their spot over those who played great in July and August. 

Again, if you look hard enough — which is to say, you look at the things that might confirm your biases! — something similar could be playing out for Team Europe. 

With less than three weeks before captain’s picks are made, the European team is almost entirely set in stone. The American team is not solidified at all. That is abnormal — and potentially not so great for the Euros. It would appear that at least 10 spots, if not 11, are locked in for the blue and yellow. Don’t believe me? Allow DataGolf to speak up. It ranks 11 players as having a 67 percent chance or greater of making the team. They are as follows:

1. Rory McIlroy
2. Jon Rahm
3. Tommy Fleetwood
4. Ludvig Aberg
5. Sepp Straka
6. Tyrrell Hatton
7. Bob MacIntyre
8. Matt Fitzpatrick
9. Viktor Hovland
10. Aaron Rai
11. Shane Lowry

You would not balk at any of those selections. It’s a bunch of players who have done important things this year, and only includes one rookie — Aaron Rai — who has played at a Shane Lowry-, Jason Day- or Cam Young-level for the last 12 months. It’s just that it leaves just one open spot on a team playing on the road in a tricky environment. 

So, will Team Europe do as the Americans did in 2023 and leave off one of its hottest players in favor of one of its longest tenured veterans?

Probably. 

We’re talking about Justin Rose and his very natural inclusion in the eyes of captain Luke Donald. These two have been playing golf against each other for three decades. It was Rose who helped rile up the entire property at Marco Simone when he earned 1.5 points at the 2023 Cup. And it’s been Rose who peaked during some of the biggest events in the last 18 months. He lost a playoff to Rory McIlroy at the Masters, has dallied around in contention at a few Signature Events, and even contended at majors in 2024. 

But beyond that, his form has not been there. Rose is currently 77th on DataGolf’s ranking — 20th among Europeans. He does a lot of things solidly, but nothing incredibly. He will be a net-negative driver at a course that demands driving. Will his form make up for it elsewhere? 

Not like Harry Hall’s could. 

You’re forgiven for perhaps not knowing much about Harry Hall, the 27-year-old Englishman. But don’t let that be the case for long. He is playing the best golf of his life, is currently the 6th-ranked European according to DataGolf, and is unequivocally one of the best putters on the planet. Hall hasn’t missed a cut in the last five months, and has been racking up top 20s as much as anyone not named Scottie Scheffler. 

It’s not likely that Hall gets picked over Rose. Which is fine, for the record. Whoever earns that 12th spot for Team Europe will only have to play three matches, total, and you’d be inclined to want experience on your side. (Rose has played 26 Ryder Cup matches. Only McIlroy has played more, among active players.) 

But the truth that often gets lost in Ryder Cup team-building is that you will not have 12 hot players on your team. Form comes and goes, and maybe a third of the roster just won’t have their best stuff, like we saw in 2023 from Koepka, Clark, Fowler, Spieth, Thomas, etc. Ludvig Aberg’s best stuff came earlier this year, in January. Viktor Hovland’s season has been a rollercoaster of swing thoughts. Shane Lowry’s summer has been defined by him cussing out whichever course hosts the next major championship. 

Tucked in neatly on any form chart among those pros Team Europe is counting on is Hall. We’re not necessarily campaigning for him to usurp Rose just yet. We just know Team Europe will have a mini dilemma on their hands if Hall keeps this up.

We know because we’ve been there, just two years ago.