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00:00Let's flip over to Jim Furyk's picks on the American side, and he took Keegan Bradley,
00:09who is also the captain. He was slated to be an assistant captain for this competition.
00:13He is the captain for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black next year in 2025. He took Sam Burns,
00:20Tony Finau, Brian Harmon, Russell Henley, and Max Homa. Let's start with Keegan. Keegan, I think
00:27if he did not get selected for this team, there would have been some riots amongst the American
00:32support. Keegan was a guy who won the second playoff event, the BMW Championship, to play
00:37his way from 50th on that list, the fourth place heading into the Tour Championship.
00:41We sat down with Keegan, Smiley and I did, at Atlanta, and he said that in the call that was
00:47made to him to ask him to captain the American side at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage, they told him
00:52that they wanted him to be the first playing captain for this team since Arnold Palmer back
00:57in the 60s. And so it seemed to me that if you want Keegan to be a playing captain at Bethpage,
01:03it would make no sense to not give him some experience doing the playing captain slash
01:07assistant or to do the the playing portion, but also being an assistant captain in Montreal for
01:13this President's Cup. So I think that selection makes sense. There were a couple of players that
01:17got left at home that could feel hard done by Justin Thomas misses a team for the first time
01:22in a long while. It's no secret that Justin was a somewhat controversial pick for the Ryder Cup
01:28last year, Rome, where the US team ultimately lost. But he his game been trending in the past
01:33couple of months. He's been putting a lot better to go along with his world class ball striking.
01:37So I think he can feel a little bit. It's a little bit of a tough selection for him to not be taken
01:42for this team. Akshay Bhatia, another young budding star that barely misses out on points
01:48qualification and Jim Furyk just decides to go in a different direction there. It Brian Harmon
01:54and Max Homa is picks. I think makes sense for their record. It's just a bit strange. I think
02:00given Max Homa's current form is clearly struggling off the tee the past couple weeks in the FedEx Cup
02:06playoffs that having been said no better way to try to fix that and give him some confidence
02:11than playing with a partner and a lot of these formats. You're either playing in a best ball
02:16scenario where if you hit it wayward off the tee, you got a guy who can pick you up or an
02:19alt shot where you don't we only have to hit half the tee shot. So maybe this is an opportunity for
02:23Max to get some confidence back in his game. And I think Brian Harmon's just a game where he showed
02:28you that even in the US loss in Rome. He's a guy who's a match play dog. So that to me seems like
02:33the justification behind Keegan Bradley's pick.