Ryder Cup Implications at the 2025 Open Championship

Assuming Scottie Scheffler continues on his path towards a drama-free victory, we’re going to be looking for some secondary storylines on Sunday at the Open Championship. One of those will undoubtedly be Ryder Cup implications for both teams, but most importantly for the Americans. Past fixtures have failed to show up in 2025, and that leaves a lot of uncertainty as we approach the 60-day mark to Bethpage. Here are a few names to keep an eye on during the final round.

Harris English – In very Harris English fashion, meaning in the least flashy way possible, English found himself tenth in the standings entering this week. But with many more established U.S. names behind him — Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and Patrick Cantlay among them  — his place on the team was far from certain. In the top five entering the final round, one more solid day may secure his position on the team.

Chris Gotterup – The chaos agent. Winner of last week’s Scottish Open, Chris Gotterup has worked his way into the top five through three rounds and could very well take home a massive second-place purse tomorrow. Should he do that, he’d jump to roughly 15th in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings and still have a few tournaments to go before the team is decided. It is rumored that Captain Keegan Bradley doesn’t want to take any rookies to Bethpage, but are they really going to leave a tri-state native whose game fits Bethpage off the team if he rattles off a bunch of high-profile results in the final months before the Ryder Cup?

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Wyndham Clark – A member of the 2023 Ryder Cup and 2024 Presidents Cup teams, Wyndham Clark hasn’t been a fixture in the captain’s pick conversation, but better play of late has him within shouting distance. Back-to-back 66s have him in the top 15, and one more low round on Sunday sets him up to really make things messy during the final month.

Lucas Glover – The idea of bringing Lucas Glover to Bethpage doesn’t thrill or delight me, but I don’t think his position in the Ryder Cup standings is being discussed enough. He would need to do something crazy tomorrow, like 63 or 64 crazy, but he could conceivably make a big jump as we approach the big money in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, tournaments that Glover has done well in over the last couple years.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.