Ryder Cup preparations for US team begins in wine country

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NAPA, Calif. (AP) — Justin Thomas is in northern California's wine country for a final tune-up before the Ryder Cup, just like he was two years ago. Only now he has plenty of company.

The U.S. team, determined not to repeat the mistakes of two years ago, has 10 of its 12 players in the Procore Championship at Silverado Resort as they try to stay sharp with the Ryder Cup matches in two weeks at Bethpage Black.

“The rust some guys had in Rome was a bit of a learning experience,” Thomas said Tuesday after nine holes of practice with three teammates.

Two years ago, Thomas and Max Homa played the Napa tournament, the only competition in the four weeks between the Tour Championship and the Ryder Cup in Rome. Europe overwhelmed the Americans from the start at Marco Simone and cruised to another win.

Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele were among the players pushing for everyone to be in Napa, and U.S. captain Keegan Bradley organized a week of practice, a team dinner scheduled for Tuesday night and then a chance for players to compete and stay sharp.

Schauffele was the only PGA Tour member who wound up not coming. He said in a text to the AP on Tuesday morning he was at home in Florida with his newborn son.

Bryson DeChambeau is with LIV Golf, and thus suspended by the PGA Tour and ineligible to play. DeChambeau was at the Walker Cup at Cypress Point over the weekend and said he would be at the dinner — but not at the tournament to avoid becoming a distraction.

Bradley also is at the Procore Championship even though he's not playing. He was in a cart bouncing between two groups of his players.

Bradley also has an influence on the tee times, not uncommon in a Ryder Cup year at tournaments throughout the year.

The Ryder Cup players are stacked together in four groups that play Thursday afternoon and Friday morning — Scheffler with Russell Henley and J.J. Spaun; Harris English with Collin Morikawa and Webb Simpson (who is not in the Ryder Cup); Sam Burns with Patrick Cantlay and vice captain Gary Woodland; and Thomas with Cameron Young and Ben Griffin.

It gives the Procore Championship the best field it has ever had, and also created an interesting dynamic Tuesday on the practice range of what looked to be two tours — Ryder Cup players, all of them among the top 25 in the world, right alongside players who are scrambling to finish in the top 100 in the FedEx Cup to keep their jobs for next year.

Most of them — that includes Homa, who is not part of the team this year — have not played in more than a month because they weren't eligible for the FedEx Cup postseason.

“The guys that need to play well, it’s huge,” defending champion Patton Kizzire said. “Everybody wants to get off to a good start this fall. We’ve got a good slate of tournaments but everybody’s looking forward to Napa through that break. Everybody’s preparing and really resetting and getting ready for this week.”

Why so few Americans played last year remains a mystery, but this was clearly a correction.

Thomas, at age 32, is the veteran of this U.S. team playing in his fourth Ryder Cup. He said one difficulty was the cups — Ryder or Presidents — not being in the same part of the calendar.

His first Presidents Cup was in 2017 and Thomas went from the Tour Championship to Liberty National. The next year, the U.S. team went straight from the Tour Championship in Atlanta to France for the Ryder Cup.

And then last time for the Ryder Cup, there was a four-week break.

“It's a chance for us to come here and stay a lot sharper so we don't feel like we're starting the week from scratch at Bethpage,” Thomas said.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf