Where things stand for each Ryder Cup team after two majors

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- As we reach the halfway point of the major championship season, we are now only four months away from this year's Ryder Cup. Both teams are far from settled, as captains Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley continue to survey the landscape before having to make tough decisions.

While Bradley continues to play well and climb the U.S. standings, Donald followed up making the cut at the PGA Championship with a scouting trip on Monday to Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, New York, which will host the Ryder Cup Sept. 26-28.

"I'm going to have a quick look," Donald said.

The top six golfers in each team's points standings will automatically make the team; Bradley and Donald will also make six captain's choices.

Here's where things stand for each respective team.

U.S. team

Locks to make the team

Scottie Scheffler
The world No. 1 golfer picked up his third major championship victory at the PGA Championship and is back to dominant form. Scheffler will be looking for redemption after going 0-2-2 in the U.S. team's 16 ½-11 ½ loss at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club outside Rome in 2023. Scheffler and Brooks Koepka were trounced 9 & 7 by Ludvig Åberg and Viktor Hovland, the largest margin of victory in an 18-hole match in Ryder Cup history, leaving Scheffler in tears and disbelief.

Scheffler's driving length and accuracy should be a weapon at Bethpage Black, along with his world-class iron play. He went 2-0-1 as a Ryder Cup rookie in the U.S. team's 19-9 victory in 2021 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, another long course.

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele captured two major championships last year, and he's playing well again after dealing with a painful rib injury earlier this season. His previous two Ryder Cup appearances were polar opposites: He went 3-1-0 at Whistling Straits and 1-3 in Rome two years later. Still, he's undoubtedly one of the best golfers in the world.

Bryson DeChambeau
Nobody in professional golf hits a ball further off the tee than DeChambeau, who has been in the mix on the weekend in five of the past six majors. He won his second U.S. Open title at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina last year and played in the final group at the Masters in April. Plus, he doesn't get nearly enough credit for his putting.

After going 0-3 in his Ryder Cup debut in Paris in 2018, DeChambeau bounced back to go 2-0-1 at Whistling Straits. Leaving him off the team in 2023 was probably a mistake. He'll be a crowd favorite at Bethpage Black and will bring plenty of energy to the team room.

Justin Thomas
Thomas struggled mightily with his form for two years, but he recovered to win the RBC Heritage on April 20 at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. JT didn't play well at the Masters and missed the cut at the PGA Championship, which was surprising, but he'll make the team if his game doesn't fall off a cliff again.

Thomas is one of the U.S. team's best players in team events -- he has a 7-4-2 record in three appearances. He was a controversial pick for Rome and had a 1-2-1 record. There weren't many other U.S. golfers who played that well that weekend, either.

Collin Morikawa
Morikawa's Ryder Cup career mirrors what Schauffele has done -- he went 3-0-1 at Whistling Straits and 1-3 at Marco Simone. The two-time major champion hasn't won since the Zozo Championship in Japan in October 2023, but he is playing well enough to pick up a win (or two) before the Ryder Cup. Morikawa is back to striping the ball like one of the best players in the world. He went into last week ranked in the top five on tour in strokes gained: tee to green (1.373) and approach (.930). Morikawa's game complements just about anyone else on the roster, too.

Should be on the team

Patrick Cantlay
Cantlay hasn't won on tour since finishing first at the BMW Championship in August 2022. He finished in the top 25 in three of four majors in 2024, but he missed the cut at the Masters and PGA Championship this year.

Cantlay is an experienced Ryder Cup player and was one of the team's better performers in the past two events. He went 3-0-1 at Whistling Straits and 2-2 in Rome, where he took heat from European fans for the "hatgate" controversy concerning American golfers wanting to be compensated. To his credit, Cantlay didn't blink. He's 5-2-1 in Ryder Cups and 10-4 in Presidents Cups. Bradley isn't passing up that experience and success.

Russell Henley
Henley is one of the best iron players in the world and a great putter when he's on. He doesn't hit the ball far off the tee, but everyone doesn't have to be a bomber, do they? He picked up his fifth PGA Tour victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 9, then missed the cut at the Masters and PGA Championship.

Henley went 3-1 at last year's Presidents Cup in Montreal. He teamed up with Scheffler to win two of three matches, and that might be the right pairing at Bethpage Black as well.

In contention

Brooks Koepka
The five-time major champion hasn't played well outside of the LIV Golf League the past two seasons, finishing outside of the top 25 in each of his past seven stats in majors. Still, he's one of the more experienced American golfers in the Ryder Cup with a 7-6-2 record. Oh, and he won the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black Course.

Harris English
English picked up his fifth PGA Tour victory at the Farmers Insurance Open in January and played well in the past two majors, tying for 12th at the Masters and second at the PGA Championship. The 35-year-old is long enough off the tee, and he's one of the best putters on tour. He went 1-2-0 as a Ryder Cup rookie in 2021.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth probably gets a pass on his poor play last season because of his painful wrist injury that required surgery in August. There were signs that he is close to coming back -- he tied for fourth at the WM Phoenix Open and 14th at the Masters. He missed the cut at Quail Hollow Club, where he was trying to complete the career Grand Slam. He didn't have a great performance in Rome but is 8-9-5 in the event in his career. It's difficult to imagine Bradley leaving that experience at home.

Brian Harman
Harman won for the fourth time on tour at the Valero Texas Open on April 6. Critics might argue that Bethpage Black is too big for him, but he's one of the best putters on tour and was a match-play specialist as an amateur. The Homa/Harman pairing was one of the few bright spots for the Americans in Rome.

Maverick McNealy
The former Stanford star picked up his first PGA Tour victory at the RSM Classic in November. He was runner-up at the Genesis Invitational and tied for third at the Valero Texas Open and RBC Heritage this season. The 29-year-old would be a Ryder Cup rookie, but he has past experience on the Arnold Palmer Cup and Walker Cup teams.

Keegan Bradley
Bradley has said he'd have to be among the six automatic qualifiers for him to be a playing captain. If other American golfers don't start stepping up, Bradley might be forced to choose himself with a captain's pick. The 38-year-old had six top-25s in his first 11 starts, then finished T-8 at the PGA Championship. It would be ironic, since Bradley was a controversial snub by U.S. captain Zach Johnson in 2023.

Daniel Berger
Berger hasn't won in more than four years after being sidelined with a debilitating back injury for parts of two seasons. He has been back on plenty of leaderboards this year and was part of the Ryder Cup victory in 2021.

Max Homa
Homa has struggled mightily with his game for much of the past year, but he seems to be finally figuring some things out. He tied for 12th at the Masters and played better at the PGA Championship than his tie for 60th would suggest. He was the U.S. team's top performer in Rome, earning 3 ½ points with a 3-1-1 record. He also has a 5-2 record in two Presidents Cups.

Other names to keep an eye on

Andrew Novak
Sam Burns
J.J. Spaun
Wyndham Clark
Michael Kim
Tony Finau
Lucas Glover
Denny McCarthy
Ben Griffin
J.T. Poston
Davis Riley

European team

Locks to make the team

Rory McIlroy
The Masters champion did not follow up his Grand Slam victory at Augusta with a run at a second straight major this past week at Quail Hollow, finishing the tournament in a tie for 47th (3-over), but he has already had a stellar season and it's only May. McIlroy's wins at Pebble Beach and the Players Championship as well as the Masters have him as the top player on Europe's Ryder Cup standings by a healthy margin.

Even without those wins, there's no doubt about who the leader and best player of this European team is. McIlroy, whose record in the event is 16-13-4, said earlier this year that winning an away Ryder Cup is one of his remaining career goals. He'll get his chance to do just that in New York come September.

Jon Rahm
What a week it was for Rahm at the PGA Championship. Despite his blowup finish, Rahm was not just in contention; he held a share of the lead on the back nine of a major for the first time since his 2023 Masters victory. The result was that, even though disappointed, Rahm felt reenergized by being in the mix once again, saying it had been a while since he has had that much fun on a golf course.

Rahm deflected questions about his Ryder Cup selection to captain Luke Donald (currently Rahm is 24th on the Euro Ryder Cup standings), but there's no doubt that Donald will have the three-time participant on this team when he has to make his captain's selections.

Should be on team

Ludvig Aberg
The selection of Aberg for the European team in Rome was a surprise only due to the fact that the then-23 year old had never been on the team. In retrospect, Donald's selection proved fortuitous and a foreshadowing of what was to come. Aberg is now one of the top players in the world, and despite a disappointing week at Quail Hollow and a tough stretch of results over the past month, there shouldn't be much concern about Aberg, who already won once this year.

Sepp Straka
The surprise of the week may have come when Straka, who was coming off a win at the Truist championship (his second of the year on the PGA Tour), missed the cut at the PGA Championship. Perhaps it was fatigue -- Straka has played 15 events already this season -- that affected his performance. Even though that's now two missed cuts in two majors this season, Straka is all but a lock given his placement on the standings (5th) and the fact that he, like Aberg, was on the team last time around.

Shane Lowry
A top-15 player in the OWGR rankings, Lowry is not a lock in May only because Rahm and McIlroy are in a tier of their own. The Irishman competed at the Masters before a disappointing Sunday and he missed the cut at this year's PGA Championship. But Lowry's overall play has remained in good shape -- he's got four top-10 finishes this season and came in second to his friend, McIlroy, at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. If their success as a team at the Zurich Classic is any indication, both of them will likely be paired up at Bethpage.

Tyrrell Hatton
Hatton may have left for LIV, but his play has remained relatively steady as he's all the way up to fourth on the European Cup standings. At Marco Simone, Hatton was a force, going 3-0-1 in his matches and taking down Brian Harman in the Sunday singles. A lot would have to go wrong for him to not be on this team.

Viktor Hovland
It has been a fascinating 12 months for Hovland, whose swing seems to continue to keep him up at night, even though he nearly won last year's PGA Championship and added a PGA Tour win at the Valspar Championship this season -- right after missing three straight cuts, no less. Hovland's volatility has him 12th in the current standings, but like Aberg there's little doubt whether we'll be seeing him in blue and gold come September.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood may not be the best player without a major, but he is certainly the steadiest. He has not missed a cut all season and has three top-10s as he still searches for his first PGA Tour victory. He is a top-15 player on the OWGR (7th on the Ryder Cup standings) and a lot will have to go wrong for him to not be on this team.

In contention

Justin Rose
Plenty thought Marco Simone would likely be Rose's final Ryder Cup. Think again. Not only did Rose nearly win the Masters, he has three top-10 finishes this season and is still playing remarkable golf. Don't count him out.

Rasmus Hojgaard
The 24-year-old Hojgaard has an advantage having made the team last time around at a young age, like Aberg, but he has only one top-10 finish this season at the Zurich Classic alongside his brother Nicolai. Still, the potential of continuing to strengthen his career at the Ryder Cup over going with someone older and more experienced looms.

Robert MacIntyre
It's the same kind of story for McIntyre, who debuted last Ryder Cup. While he was thought to be the weak link of the European team in Rome, he acquitted himself quite well going 2-0-1 in his matches. He's currently 15th in the standings.

Thomas Detry
After winning the WM Phoenix Open this year, Detry inserted himself into the Ryder Cup conversation and has, to this point, jumped all the way up to 9th place on the European team standings. Detry's play at the majors (two missed cuts) isn't ideal, however, and he'll likely have to improve on his play over the next few months to give Donald a reason to select him.

Other names to keep an eye on

Aaron Rai
Stephan Jaeger
Nicolai Hojgaard
Alex Noren