The biggest Presidents Cup captain’s pick mirrored a strategic Ryder Cup decision

The 2026 Presidents Cup teams are set after U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker and International captain Geoff Ogilvy each made six captain’s picks on Tuesday. The event will be played later this month at Medinah Country Club in Illinois.

Snedeker selected Chris Gotterup (seventh in the U.S. points standings), Xander Schauffele (ninth), Justin Thomas (11th), Jacob Bridgeman (12th), Patrick Cantlay (13th) and Jackson Koivun, who was outside the top 25. They will join automatic qualifiers Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Sam Burns, Wyndham Clark, Russell Henley and Collin Morikawa.

Ogilvy selected Corey Conners (seventh in the International standings), Nico Echavarria (eighth), Sungjae Im (ninth), Ryo Hisatsune (10th), Nick Taylor (13th) and Christiaan Bezuidenhout (18th). They will join automatic qualifiers Si Woo Kim, Min Woo Lee, Tom Kim, Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama and Ryan Fox.

The most notable move by Snedeker was selecting Koivun. Jackson turned professional after the U.S. Open and won the 3M Open in his third professional start. The decision mirrored Luke Donald’s choice to select Ludvig Aberg for the 2023 Ryder Cup before the Swede had even made a major-championship start.

Although Koivun was selected for the Presidents Cup, Snedeker—who is likely to be considered for a future Ryder Cup captaincy—may have wanted to give a player viewed as golf’s next big star an early taste of team competition.

The 21-year-old Koivun built a historic amateur career at Auburn, then turned professional and forced his way onto Snedeker’s team ahead of Ben Griffin, Ryan Gerard, J.J. Spaun and Akshay Bhatia.

“We took a long, hard look at all these guys that were close. But Jackson, what he did at 3M, what he has proven in his amateur career, what he brings to the table is something that we wanted to take a hard look at. I’m so impressed by this young man. I think he brings a lot to the team room; he brings a lot in terms of pairings. I know what this guy is capable of. I’m excited for him to show it to the world,” Snedeker said.

Koivun went 3-1 as a member of the victorious U.S. Walker Cup team last September. He will be the youngest member of Team USA since Jordan Spieth made his team debut as a 20-year-old in 2013.

“I’m definitely going to feel some nerves, but I’ve always told myself that nerves are a good thing because that means I care. I’m just really excited to step up at Medinah and go play some golf,” Koivun said after the selection.

“It still feels like a pinch-me moment. When he called me and told me I was headed to Medinah, I was shell-shocked for about four hours, and then it started to settle in. It was truly exciting and it was just a very big moment to me,” he added.

The rest of the U.S. roster was largely predictable. Snedeker selected Gotterup, who narrowly missed automatic qualification, along with three veterans: Schauffele, Thomas and Cantlay.

Snedeker called Schauffele, who will play in his fourth Presidents Cup, “a pillar” of Team USA. Of Thomas, the captain said: “He’s the epitome of what you want as a team captain. He brings everything to the team that you could ask for—through his energy, through his preparation, through what this means to him, and he’s the all-time winning point leader on our team, so it’s pretty hard not to think this guy’s going to have a big role for us. He has the ability to play his best golf when stuff’s on the line, especially in team events. That’s what you want. You want guys that show up when all the chips are on the table. He’s going to hit the shot that needs to be hit. He’s going to hit the putt that needs to be hit and he’s the guy everyone else wants hitting it. Those are the guys you can’t have too much of.”

Bridgeman’s selection came as a bit of a surprise. The 26-year-old won the Genesis Invitational in February, beating Rory McIlroy, and finished fifth at The Players, but did not record another top-10 finish until the BMW Championship two weeks ago. The Clemson product led the PGA Tour in putting and will make his professional team-competition debut.

“What he did earlier this year, winning the Genesis Invitational and staring down Rory McIlroy and coming out on top, was pretty impressive. To follow that up with the way he played late in the season—he’s very consistent and the best putter we have on the PGA Tour. … Jacob is a really good competitor. I think most people don’t understand that about him because he is so even-keeled and quiet, but he is a very competitive guy, and those guys seem to rise to the occasion when things come around,” Snedeker said.

The headline of Snedeker’s selection process, however, was Koivun. He is expected to become a fixture on American teams for years to come, with the Presidents Cup giving him his first professional team experience before attention turns to the next one: the 2027 Ryder Cup.