Golf: Koepka shows himself human with final round fade in Atlanta

Brooks Koepka proved himself human after all in the final round at the Tour Championship on Sunday when he was comprehensively outplayed by winner Rory McIlroy in Atlanta.

Four weeks after schooling McIlroy in the final round at the WGC-St. Jude Invitational, the northern Irishman got his revenge and then some at East Lake.

McIlroy shot four-under 66, six strokes better than Koepka, to clinch the tournament and the $15 million payout as FedEx Cup season-long champion.

"Just one of those days where you don't feel comfortable," world number one Koepka told reporters after finishing equal third, five shots behind McIlroy.

"This week, just didn't get it done. I don't think I was going to beat Rory today, even if I had it."

Usually machine-like and impervious to pressure, Koepka hit several wayward drives, including one pulled deep into the woods on the seventh hole that resulted in a lost ball.

The American's putting also betrayed him down the stretch, as he missed a three-footer, a four-footer and a six-footer in quick succession to run up three straight bogeys.

"Those three putts I missed kind of took the air out of everything," Koepka said.

His season will still go down as a great one, due primarily to his major record -- victory at the PGA Championship and runnerup finishes at the Masters and U.S. Open.

But Sunday's result will give his rivals, most notably McIlroy, confidence that he is beatable.

"I mean, I can't bring it every day," Koepka said, something his peers were starting to wonder about.

(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Ian Ransom)

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Golf: McIlroy banks $15 million with Tour Championship, FedEx Cup wins

*Northern Irishman wins by four shots

*Clinches FedEx Cup for second time

*Collects biggest prize in golf history 

Victory at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday will not completely erase the disappointment of a futile season at the majors for Rory McIlroy, but it may be worth far more than the $15 million he received for winning the FedEx Cup.

The confidence gained from playing his best on a big stage and beating nemesis Brooks Koepka can only help his self-belief after a disappointing final round when paired with Tiger Woods at the same event last year.

The Northern Irishman emphatically outdueled Americans Koepka and Xander Schauffele with a closing four-under 66 at East Lake en route to the biggest prize in the sport.

He finished at 18-under, four shots ahead of Schauffele to claim the season-long FedEx Cup for the second time on the PGA Tour, after his 2016 win.

It was a sweet stroll up the final hole for McIlroy, who last year had to endure the walk alongside a victorious Woods as the heaving gallery chanted, "Tiger, Tiger."

This time, chants of "Rory, Rory" rang out from the crowd.

"I must say I didn't enjoy that walk last year like everyone else did," McIlroy said. "I never took the fight to Tiger.

"It's amazing how different things can be in a year."

McIlroy took the fight to Koepka just four weeks after being given a lesson by the American when they were paired in the final round at a World Golf Championships event in Memphis.

"Going up against the number one player in the world today, he got one over me in Memphis and I wanted to get some revenge," McIlroy said.

"To play like that alongside Brooks, get the win, win the FedEx Cup, it's awesome."

Schauffele shot a closing 70, while Koepka was unusually error-prone in a 72 to tie for third with Justin Thomas, five shots behind.

McIlroy, who teed off one stroke behind Koepka, hit the ball long and straight as he split fairway after fairway.

Koepka, on the other hand, was often wayward. At the par-four seventh he lost a ball after hooking a tee shot into the trees and took a double-bogey.

McIlroy picked up three shots there with a birdie and from that point Schauffele was his main challenger.

The Northern Irishman opened the door slightly with bogeys at the 14th and 15th holes, but slammed it shut again with a clutch eight-foot par putt at the 16th.

THIRD WIN

McIlroy's third win of the year followed triumphs at the Players Championship and Canadian Open.

His major results were disappointing, however, particularly a missed cut at the British Open in his homeland at Royal Portrush.

"To win three times is awesome," he said.

"I feel like I could have won more but to win the FedEx cup again, to persist the whole way throughout the year, to keep giving myself chances, even when I was getting knocked back and not be denied, I'm very proud of myself."

The Tour Championship used a staggered scoring system for the first time, based on accumulated points.

Hence, top seed Thomas started at 10-under, the second seed at eight-under and so on down to even par for the 26th-to-30th ranked players in the field.

This was done to ensure that the winner of the season-long FedEx Cup points race and the winner of the Tour Championship were guaranteed to be the same person.

Fifth seed McIlroy, who started on five-under, shot the best score of the field anyway, 13-under-par 267.

"My goal was to shoot the lowest score of the week," he said.

Mission accomplished.

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Golf: Thomas eyes FedEx Cup jackpot at Tour Championship

LOS ANGELES -- Justin Thomas will start with a two-shot cushion as he aims to crown his season with victory at the Tour Championship and a $15 million FedEx Cup payday on Thursday.

Under a revamped "staggered start" format to the PGA Tour's lucrative season finale, Thomas will automatically tee off on 10 under at East Lake Golf Club outside Atlanta.

The "Starting Strokes" format introduced this week is designed to eliminate the confusion of past FedEx playoffs, when the winner of the final tournament was often different from the series champion.

Instead, the 30-man field at East Lake have been given starting totals which reflect their performances this season. 

Put simply, the player who finishes on top of the leaderboard this week will also pocket the $15 million prize on offer to the FedEx Cup champion.

Thomas, who captured his 10th career title with a win at the BMW Championship on Sunday, is now in pole position at the top of the leaderboard.

Patrick Cantlay will start in second on eight under, while Brooks Koepka will tee off in third place on seven under. 

Patrick Reed starts on six under with Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy fifth on five under.

Despite the unusual position of starting the tournament with a lead, Thomas insists he will not be thinking about defending his advantage at the top of the leaderboard when this week's event gets under way.

"It's going to be tough," said Thomas, who could join Tiger Woods as the only man to win two FedEx Cup Championships after his victory in 2017. "I'm just going to have to try to play another golf tournament and act like everyone's staring at zero and try to shoot the lowest 72 holes," added Thomas.

McIlroy, the 2016 FedEx champion, who will start five shots off the lead this week, believes Thomas can take a conservative approach into the tournament on the 7,346-yard par 70 layout.

- Woods, Lowry missing -

"If I was in JT's position, it would be, 'OK, I'm going to go out and shoot 67 every day. No one should beat me if I do that,'" McIlroy said. "I think you have to just control what you can."

Thomas meanwhile admits he will be grappling with the unknown. 

"There isn't a person on the planet that's experienced this before, for the stakes it's for," Thomas said. "I'm just going to try to deal with it the best I can."

The format for the FedEx Cup finale has not been universally popular, with many critics taking aim at a qualifying system that has no mechanism for allowing the inclusion of 2019 Masters champion Tiger Woods and British Open winner Shane Lowry, two high-profile absentees this week.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan defended the format, emphasising that the final 30-man field was designed to reward consistency over a whole season.

"We are in the Playoffs, and Playoffs inherently bring forward a lot of volatility,"Monahan said. 

"I think what it says is that, one, it's really hard to get to Atlanta and the Tour Championship. You've got to play exceedingly well over the course of an entire season, and with volatility, there's risk. 

"And if you don't play well over the course of the season or you don't get off to the start that you envision at the start of the playoffs, you take the risk that you're not going to be here.

"I want to emphasize the fact that what Tiger and Shane did this year, those are two of the greatest stories of the year. So would you want them here? 1,000%. 

"But you look at every other sport and their playoff format, and you'll have top teams that fall out early. You'll have some things that you may not have predicted, particularly at the moment when they won those two big events."

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Golf: Woods misses chance to defend Tour Championship title

There will be no defending champion at next week's Tour Championship after Tiger Woods failed to qualify for the season-ending event.

Only the top 30 players on the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup points list are eligible to play at East Lake in Atlanta, where $15 million will be up for grabs for the winner.

Woods needed to place about sixth at the BMW Championship on Sunday to qualify, but he tied for 37th at Medinah, a distant 18 strokes behind winner Justin Thomas.

Apart from his win at the Masters for his 15th major title, Woods had a relatively quiet season, which petered out without a whimper amid physical and emotional fatigue.

"The rest of the tournaments I didn't really play as well as I wanted to, but at the end of the day, I'm the one with the green jacket," he told reporters on Sunday.

Still, Woods will be disappointed not to get a chance to return to the scene of one of the most memorable victories of his career.

Successfully returning last year from major back surgery, he ended a five-year drought with his two-stroke win at East Lake, the 80th of his PGA Tour career, which was at the time just two shy of Sam Snead's all-time mark.

(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; editing by Tony Lawrence/Greg Stutchbury)

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Mickelson salutes Tiger Woods win

ATLANTA -- Phil Mickelson led the praise for Tiger Woods after the former world number one ended a five-year title-drought with victory at the Tour Championship here Sunday.

Mickelson, who will face Woods in a lucrative head-to-head shoot-out in Las Vegas in November, said he had never doubted that the 14-time major winner would add to his collection of PGA Tour titles.

"He's played such good golf all year that it is just not surprising,” Mickelson said.

"Tiger's played so well on a very difficult golf course and we almost kind of expected it.

"We never doubted he woud not win again, not from what I've seen he's been swinging the club and the way he’s being playing.

"It was just a matter of time.”

The victory lifts Woods tally to 80 PGA Tour titles and just three wins shy of becoming the most successful player in the history of the PGA Tour.

Mickelson meanwhile said he is looking forward to joining up with Woods for this week's Ryder Cup in Versailles, despite a disappointing showing in Atlanta which saw him finish on 13 over par.

"It was not the week here I would have liked heading into any big tournament but next week in France is going to be totally different with different grass, different course and different everything so we’ll see," Mickelson said.

"It's going to be a special week and with Patrick (Reed) and I playing together today we were talking about it and it's going to be a fun and exciting week."

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Tiger Woods seals first win in 5 years with Tour Championship

ATLANTA - Tiger Woods scored his first victory in more than 5 years on Sunday, completing a 2-shot win at the Tour Championship to crown a fairy tale comeback after a near 2-year absence.

The 42-year-old, 14-time major winner carded a one-over-par 71 at Atlanta's East Lake Golf Course to claim the 80th title of his glittering career.

Woods, who finished with an 11-under-par aggregate 269, raised his arms in delight after the victory, with several thousand fans ringing the green roaring appreciation.

Woods admitted he had nearly been overcome with emotion as he walked up the 18th fairway.

"I was having a hard time not crying coming up the last hole," Woods said.

"I kept saying 'Hey, I could still play this out of bounds.' But once I got the ball on the green I gave (caddie) Joey (LaCava) a high five because I knew it was done."

It was an emotional finale to a year which saw Woods return to the highest level after he had once feared he may never play golf again.

"It was just a grind out there," Woods said of his final round. "I loved every bit of it. The fight, the grind, the tough conditions.

"Beginning of the year (winning) was a tall order. But as the year progressed I found my swing and put the pieces together and I knew I could do it."

The victory erased any last lingering doubts about Woods' ability to compete at the highest level, something he had served notice of with top 10 finishes at the British Open and US PGA Championships.

Woods, who returned in January after missing almost the entire previous two years with a debilitating back injury, held a three-shot advantage heading into the final round.

A birdie on his opening hole extended Woods' lead to four shots to give the former world number one a dream start.

With the remainder of the 30-man field struggling to make any inroads, Woods then played solid if unspectacular golf to keep a stranglehold on the lead.

A bogey on the 10th was a mere blip, with Woods re-establishing a five-shot cushion at 13 under after rolling in a 13-foot birdie putt on the par-four 13th.

Billy Horschel closed the gap to four shots after after a four-under-par final round 66, but Woods looked to be in control.

Woods, however, gave his army of fans roaring him on a scare though when back-to-back bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes cut his lead to two with two to play.

But he steadied the ship with a par on the 17th and then closed out the win with a par on 18.

The victory was Woods's first since his win at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013.

Meanwhile England's Olympic champion Justin Rose ensured he walks off with the FedEx Cup playoff title after finishing on six under for a share of fourth.

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Woods on brink of breaking title drought at Tour Championship

Tiger Woods stood on the brink of his first victory for more than five years after opening a three-shot lead over Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy in the third round of the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Saturday.

Woods exuded a sense of calm as he contemplated his chances of what given his 42 years and surgical history would be perhaps his greatest triumph, at least outside of his 14 major titles.

And he had every reason to fancy his chances given his history as a front-runner of the highest order.

He has enjoyed the sole lead 44 times entering the final round, and has converted all but twice. And he has never coughed up a lead of three shots or more.

"Simple math says that if I play a clean card the guys behind me have to shoot 67, so that helps," Woods told reporters after a five-under-par 65 at East Lake.

"I don't have to shoot 63 or 64 and hope I get help. That's a big difference. This is a spot I'd much rather be in than four or five back.

"I feel good about it. I've been playing well throughout the entire summer, just piecing it together, building, building and building.

"Finally I've come to a point where I've got control of the lead."

A victory on Sunday would be his 80th on tour -- two short of Sam Snead's record -- and his first since the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August, 2013.

Woods has not been the closer of old in his return this year from a spinal fusion, most notably at the British Open at Carnoustie where he charged into the lead halfway through the final round before faltering.

But he said he had felt comfortable on that occasion, even if he did not hoist the Claret Jug.

"When I grabbed the lead at the Open Championship (it) didn't really feel abnormal, even though it's been years since I've been in those spots," he said.

"Today was the same. I got off to just an ideal start ... and the next thing you know I'm off and running."

Indeed he was, a blistering start reminiscent of his halcyon days as he notched six birdies in the first seven holes after starting the day tied for the halfway lead with world number one Rose.

"I felt hot early for sure," Woods said. "I was hitting it absolutely dead flush, the putts I was hitting were going in and from there I just tried to hang in there."

He cooled off on the back nine en route to a 12-under 198 total, while Englishman Rose recovered from a bogey, bogey start to card a 68. Woods led by five strokes late on, but showed a hint of fragility by fluffing a pitch shot at the par-four 16th, where he failed to carry his ball up the slope.

But with a double-bogey looming, he regrouped to hit his next delicate shot stone dead for a tap-in bogey, before Rose sank an eight-foot birdie to cut the gap to three.

McIlroy, meanwhile, birdied the 16th and 18th holes to join the fray, setting up the prospect of a Sunday to remember. 

(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Ed Osmond/Nick Mulvenney)

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Golf: Woods maintains share of the lead at Tour Championship

Tiger Woods edged closer to snapping a five-year winless drought as the 14-time major winner maintained a share of the lead on Friday at the halfway stage of the Tour Championship.

Woods birdied the final hole en route to a 68 to tie Justin Rose (67) at seven-under par 133 in heatwave conditions at the East Lake golf course in Atlanta.

Rory McIlroy, winner two years ago of both the FedEx Cup and Tour Championship, remains in the hunt in sole possession of third after shooting a 68.

"The best way to describe today is I ground out a round," said Woods, a former two-time winner of the season-ending tournament.

"I wasn't quite as sharp as I was yesterday, but I hung in there and tried to miss the ball on the correct sides so I had angles. 

"For the most part, I did that."

Woods had been two strokes clear of his rivals before stumbling to a double-bogey on 16.

But the World No. 21 recovered to shoot par on 17 and then sank a two-footer for birdie on 18 to tie his English rival Rose.

Woods' last victory was in 2013 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

He began the round tied at the top with American compatriot Rickie Fowler but soon moved two clear of Fowler who bogeyed the first hole.

He then moved two strokes clear of the elite 30-player field on the back nine with birdies at the par-four 12th and par-four 14th. Woods received the loudest roar from his gallery by holing a 24-foot birdie putt on the par-three 15th.

On the next hole, Woods found himself staring at a near impossible greenside bunker shot. With no option but to chip out sideways he did that and then three-putted for a disappointing double-bogey six.

Woods isn't taking anything for granted as he goes for his 80th Tour victory on the weekend.

"Well, I need to get there first, and that's my responsibility to get there," he said. 

"I've got 36 more holes to go, and hopefully I'll be answering that question come Sunday night."

Woods says staying calm under pressure will be key in order for him to shoot low scores over the next two rounds.

"I've been pretty good at being patient in my career," he said. 

"I've won 14 majors so in order to get ahead I've got to stay patient."

Bryson DeChambeau’s dream of ending his season as PGA Tour No. 1 has turned into a nightmare for the 25-year old who posted scores of 71 and 75 for a share of 27th place.

His second round was a sour mix of just two birdies and seven bogeys.

Triple major winner Brooks Koepka rounds out the field with an eight-over par 78 on Friday for a seven-over par 147 total.

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Thomas wins $10 million bonus as FedExCup champion

American Justin Thomas lost the battle but won the war, earning the $10 million bonus as FedExCup champion on Sunday despite falling short of the tournament victory at the season-ending Tour Championship.

Finishing second behind surprise winner Xander Schauffele at East Lake in Atlanta, 24-year-old Thomas overtook countryman Jordan Spieth to top the standings for the PGA Tour's season-long points race.

Thomas, who won five times this season and claimed his first major at the PGA Championship, carded a closing 66 to lose by a stroke to rookie Schauffele, who birdied the final hole for a 68 and finished at 12-under-par 268.

"It’s a really weird day, getting asked what it’s like to win the FedExCup because as a competitor you’re mad you didn’t win the tournament," Thomas said in a greenside presentation.

"What an unbelievable honour this is, the fact that you can win something over the course of an entire year.

"I played really well all season and it was nice to play well in some playoff events finally and have it all pay off.

"It was a gruelling day for sure and nerve-racking. Xander is a deserving champion (of the Tour Championship) and I’m glad to walk away with this (FedExCup)."

Thomas started the 2016-17 season last October with a victory on the other side of the world in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, before adding two wins in Hawaii, the PGA Championship in North Carolina and the Dell Technologies Championship in Massachusetts.

He credited his hot form to an improved short game, the result, he said, of hard work.

Thomas also won the PGA of America Player of the Year, which is based on a points system for tournament wins, official prize-money and scoring averages.

Spieth, the 2015 FedExCup champion, had a chance to lift the trophy for the second time in three years, but a tie for seventh at East Lake was not enough to stave off Thomas.

He finished second in the standings, collecting a $3 million consolation prize, while Schauffele jumped to third and picked up a $2 million bonus on top of his Tour Championship prize money of $1,575,000.

"This was my worst putting week of the year, unfortunately, but what a great season it was," said Spieth, who won three times including his third major title at the British Open.

"J.T. (Thomas) obviously is very well deserved to win the FedExCup this year. It is rightfully so given his season.

"The progression that he has made this year into becoming such a tremendous closer has been phenomenal to watch.”

Thomas and Spieth will team up on the United States team against an underdog International side at the Presidents Cup in New York starting on Thursday.

"I’m very pleased with the way 2017 has gone and we have a chance to cap it off next week in New York,” Spieth said.

(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Toby Davis/Ian Ransom)

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Top-ranked Spieth primed for $10 million bonus at East Lake

Jordan Spieth feels good about the quality of his game heading into the season-ending Tour Championship starting in Atlanta on Thursday, even if he is not holing as many long putts as when he won the event in 2015.

Spieth will tee off at East Lake in top spot in the PGA Tour ranking, his sights set on staying there and finishing FedExCup champion to collect the $10 million bonus awarded to the winner of the season-long points race.


A final round 65 at the BMW Championship on Sunday came too late to challenge for victory at that event outside Chicago, but it was a welcome tonic.

“I was pumped to have the round I had on Sunday, to maintain the number one spot,” British Open champion Spieth told reporters at East Lake.

“I was a little off to start the week in my striking. I feel now close to the way I was hitting it the first two playoff events. If it was a major I’d feel very pleased with where things are.”

The top five players in the standings -- Spieth, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Marc Leishman and Jon Rahm -- control their own destiny, meaning that if they win the tournament they also win the FedExCup.

The other 25 in the elite field all have a mathematical chance of being crowned champion, but it would take a freak confluence of circumstances for those outside the top 15 to do so.

Spieth struggled with his swing when he won in 2015, but his short game was sublime.

“It was one of my worst ball-striking rounds of the year,” he recalled. “I just chipped and putted so well I was able to win.

"I don’t want to emulate that at all. That’s a lot more stressful and I haven’t been making putts from outside 10 feet like I did that year consistently, so I can’t rely on that.”

Fellow American Rickie Fowler, sixth in the standings, is also playing well, coming off a tie for second behind Australian Leishman last Sunday.

Fowler thinks a score of 14 or 15 under par might be needed to win at East Lake, his prediction made with the proviso that rain or strong wind could alter his thoughts.

“You can’t fake it at East Lake,” Fowler told Reuters in a telephone interview on the tournament's eve. “There’s some rough there but the course is playable.”

Rory McIlroy shot 12-under before winning in a playoff last year, while Spieth won with nine-under in 2015.

McIlroy has endured a lean season, and this week offers him a final chance to taste victory on the PGA Tour in 2017.

(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Toby Davis)

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Johnson keeps mojo going to share first-round lead

Top seed Dustin Johnson continued his "good mojo" to earn a tie for the first-round lead with Kevin Chappell and Hideki Matsuyama at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Thursday.

The power-hitting U.S. Open champion continued to make a fickle game look easy, compiling five birdies in a seemingly-effortless four-under-par 66 in ideal conditions at East Lake.

"I felt like I had good mojo going all day and swung it very nicely," Johnson told Golf Channel. "I hit a lot of great shots with the irons and drove it nicely. That puts together a good score."

Johnson, fellow American Chappell and Japan's Matsuyama headed Australian world number one Jason Day, South Korean Kim Si-woo and American Kevin Kisner by one stroke in the elite 30-man field.

Day continued to feel occasional twinges of the back pain that forced him to pull out of the previous playoff event, the BMW Championship, after three rounds.

The season-ending Championship is the only event on tour that hands out two trophies -- one to the tournament winner and another to the winner of the season-long FedExCup points race.

The FedExCup champion will receive $10 million and Johnson, a three-time winner this season, is in pole position. He will win the FedExCup if he also wins the tournament, as would the next four seeds -- Patrick Reed, Day, Adam Scott and Paul Casey.

Casey made a 30-foot eagle putt at the par-five 18th for two-under 68, while Scott finished poorly with two late bogeys for a 69 and Reed struggled to a 73.

Johnson hit a couple of wayward drives, but was otherwise a model of consistency.

His sole bogey came at the par-four 13th, his drive there ending up behind a pine cone from where he could advance the ball only 30 yards.

Four holes later, Johnson's drive almost struck Sky Sports on-course reporter Wayne Riley, a former professional who took his on-course role a little too literally by wandering down the fairway instead of staying in the rough.

Johnson's drive landed within a couple of paces of a surprised Riley, who came in for some light-hearted ribbing by his fellow commentators.

Joint leader Matsuyama, meanwhile, made a nice start on the more difficult front nine and picked up two more shots on the inward half.

"I was a little bit lucky on that front nine but got into a good rhythm," said the world number 18. "I putted well today and that's what made the difference." (Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)

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Spieth prizes Ryder Cup glory over Tour Championship win

As much as Jordan Spieth would love to complete a successful title defence at the Tour Championship this week, team victory at the Ryder Cup next week is an even bigger goal for the American.

If forced to choose between the two, Spieth told reporters at East Lake in Atlanta on Tuesday that he would opt for Cup glory.

"That's kind of rude," the twice major champion said in response to the question, before answering it directly when he could have diplomatically brushed it off as a hypothetical.

"I don't have a Ryder Cup (win). I think I will have a Ryder Cup at some point. You want what you don't have. I've watched the other side of that (Ryder Cup defeat in 2014) and it hurt.

"It was tough in that closing ceremony. When we boarded the plane back home, it was an empty feeling and we don't want that again," said Spieth, 23, who made his Ryder Cup debut in 2014. "We remember that. We want that celebration.

"I'm pretty confident how we're going to go about our business. I think we've got a fantastic team this year."

Spieth spent Sunday and Monday at Hazeltine National in Minnesota, site of next week's biennial showdown between the United States and Europe, seeking to squirrel away course knowledge.

The former world number one says he will have no trouble this week eliminating the Ryder Cup from his mind as he chases the tournament crown and also the $10 million bonus handed out to the winner of the season-long FedExCup points race.

But the Ryder Cup will be very much on the mind of others at East Lake in the elite 30-man field who are vying for the 12th and last spot on the American team.

CUP PRESSURE

Their battle to impress captain Davis Love, who will name his final wild card selection on Sunday night, will provide an intriguing subplot to the event, with Bubba Watson, Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger among those on the short list.

Spieth played with all three at Hazeltine on Monday.

"You could see how badly each of them wanted to be there," he said. "I think being on the property excited them even more. We want whoever's playing the best to be the last pick and I think there are five or six options."

Spieth has particular sympathy for twice Masters champion Watson, the world number seven.

"I couldn't imagine being in his position," said Spieth. "I don't know if anybody's been passed up at that spot (but) he didn't seem upset about anything, like he was entitled to anything.

"I think he really feels like he needs to do his job this week."

Spieth said he did not mind if Love chose a veteran or a rookie for the final spot.

"Doesn't make much difference, whoever's playing the best golf," he said. (Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)

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