The 12th ranked men’s golfer in the world will be watching the Presidents Cup from home this week. What would JJ Spaun, the champion of the US Open 2025, who received bad news by the American captain Brandt Snedeker on Monday of last week.
“A 45-second phone call,” is how Spaun described the exchange. “I said I wasn’t on the team, and I said I was the odd man out, and I wished him luck and that was it.”
Perceived snubs are an inevitable part of any team selection that includes a captain’s input. When subjectivity enters the process, so, too, do bitter feelings. It happens to the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup, Walker and Curtis Cups – and, yes, the biennial Presidents’ Cupthat this week visit Medinah Country Club near Chicago.
But Spaun indeed he believed he was on the fast track to one of Snedeker’s half-dozen picks, going so far as to say that recent conversations with the US captain “led me to believe he would make the team.”
The stiff arm might have discouraged Spaun; instead, it inspired him. Six days later – this past Sunday – Spaun won the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, and she wasn’t shy after that. reflecting on extra motivation which had led him to victory. “I was determined this week to try something for something,” Spaun said. “All my career, I had to do this. I wasn’t given scholarships. I had a pass. I had to earn my PGA Tour card the hard way. I was never given opportunities to invite sponsors. I just had to do everything the hard way.
“Being left was obviously for a reason. I don’t know what that reason was, but I’m here now and there was a reason why we’re here.”
Maybe it was because before Spaun’s win at Wentworth, he hadn’t scored a top-10 finish since late June. Perhaps it was because at the four most consequential events of the year – the majors – Spaun made only one cut (Open Championship, T40). Maybe it was because Snedeker was trying to fill his last places on the list with putters, which is not Spaun’s forte (he is 138th in SG: Putting this season).
In Medinah on Tuesday, Snedeker didn’t cite a reason why Spaun came up short, only that Snedeker needed to trust his instincts. “My gut was telling me one thing,” he said. Snedeker added: “I felt terrible for JJ, and I still do, because he’s a great guy and I love the guy to death.”
Reference Gary Woodland — another player who was on Snedeker’s short wildcard list but instead landed on Snedeker’s staff — Snedeker said: “I want one of my vice captains in the front row here who had a good chance to make this team. So you have to make those tough decisions.
A year or so, when the captain of the Ryder Cup of the United States Keegan Bradley left a hard-charging Maverick McNealy off his rosterBradley encouraged McNealy to use disappointment as fuel. “I said, ‘Please, be mad at me and make the next team.’ Make (a) Presidents Cup team,” Bradley said. “I’ve used that as fuel most of my career, and I’d advise Mav to do the same thing.”
Snedeker on Tuesday had much the same message for Spaun and the other bubble boys who were left out – Ryan Gerard, Akshay Bhatia and Woodland among them. “I told all the guys that they didn’t make the team, as your job is to make me look like an idiot as soon as possible.
“So I fully expect Ryan Gerard, I expect Gary to win, I expect Akshay, all these guys who were around the cusp of making this team to come out and make me look stupid. That’s why they are the best golfers in the world. Give them something to put in their sights, they will do it.”
Spaun now has four months to rally before the 2027 Ryder Cup qualification race begins in earnest. It is because the American captain Jim Furyk revamped the US points system by account only for a seven-month window, from the American Express in January to the BMW Championship in August.
Whatever happens in that stretch of 2027, Spaun can and will draw from what he accomplished at Wentworth in September 2026. “It’s not like it’s a Ryder Cup atmosphere here,” he said Sunday night after his victory. “But to go out and win on foreign soil is pretty good. I think what it does for me internally gives me confidence, knowing that I can play and compete outside of America. That’s something I can take.”
