“Make me look stupid”: U.S. captain sends message to Presidents Cup omissions

J.J. Spaun, the 2025 U.S. Open champion and the No. 12-ranked male golfer in the world, was left off the U.S. Presidents Cup team and is watching the event from home. Spaun said U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker told him by phone on Monday of the previous week.

“It was a 45-second phone call. He just said I wasn’t on the team and that I was the odd man out. I wished him luck, and that was it,” Spaun said.

The Presidents Cup is being played this week at Medinah Country Club near Chicago. Subjective captain’s decisions inevitably create disappointment when teams are selected for the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup, Walker Cup, Curtis Cup and Presidents Cup.

Spaun believed he had put himself on track for one of Snedeker’s six captain’s picks. Recent conversations with the captain, he said, “led me to believe that I would make the team.”

Instead, the snub motivated him. Six days later, last Sunday, Spaun won the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Afterward, he acknowledged that he had been determined to prove himself.

“My whole career, I’ve kind of had to do that. I wasn’t given scholarships, I had a walk-on, and I had to earn my PGA Tour card the hard way. I was never given sponsor exemptions. I just had to do everything the hard way,” Spaun said.

“Being left off 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.”

Before his win at Wentworth, Spaun had not recorded a top-10 finish since late June. At the year’s four majors, he made only one cut — at The Open, where he finished 40th. Snedeker may also have been looking to add players who excel on the greens; Spaun ranks 138th on the PGA Tour this season in SG: Putting.

At Medinah on Tuesday, Snedeker did not give a specific reason for leaving Spaun off the team, saying only that he had to trust his instincts.

“My gut was telling me one thing. I feel awful for J.J., and I always will, because he’s a great dude and I love the guy to death,” Snedeker said.

Snedeker also referenced Gary Woodland, who had been on the captain’s-pick shortlist but ultimately joined the team staff as a vice captain.

“I’m looking at one of my vice captains in the front row over here who had a really good chance of making this team. So you’re going to have to make these tough decisions,” Snedeker said.

The captain also addressed the other players who had been near the cutoff line: Ryan Gerard, Akshay Bhatia and Woodland.

“I told all the guys that didn’t make the team: your job is to go make me look like an idiot as quickly as possible.

“So I fully expect Ryan Gerard, I fully expect Gary to win, fully expect Akshay, all these guys that were around the cusp of making this team to go out and make me look stupid. That’s why they’re the best golfers in the world. Give them something to go set their sights on, they’re going to do it,” Snedeker said.

Spaun now has four months before the 2027 Ryder Cup qualifying race begins in earnest. U.S. captain Jim Furyk revamped the points system so that it will count only a seven-month window, from The American Express in January through the BMW Championship in August.

Whatever happens during that stretch, Spaun can draw confidence from his September 2026 win at Wentworth.

“Not that it’s a Ryder Cup atmosphere out here, but to come out and win on foreign soil is pretty good. I think what it does for me internally is giving me confidence, knowing that I can play and compete outside of America. That’s one thing that I can take,” he said after the victory.