MIAMI (AFP) — Two-time major winner Dustin Johnson says jumping from the PGA Tour to Saudi-backed LIV Golf cost him a spot on this year’s US Ryder Cup team.
Johnson, who went 5-0 for the Americans in a Ryder Cup rout of Europe two years ago at Whistling Straits, told the Palm Beach Post he felt he played well enough this year to earn a captain’s pick from Zach Johnson.
“If I would have been playing on (the PGA Tour), yeah, I would have made the team,” Johnson told the newspaper. “Do I think I can help the US team? Absolutely.”
Johnson, the 2016 US Open and 2020 Masters champion, won last year’s LIV Golf season crown. He won this year’s LIV Tulsa title in May but struggled in three of the four majors while placing 10th at the US Open.
“I would love to be a part of the team, but to be honest, I haven’t really played that well this year,” Johnson said.
“But have I played well enough to be on the team? Yeah. I didn’t have the best year. Was it good enough to make the team? I think so.”
US captain Zach Johnson did select LIV’s Brooks Koepka for his American squad after his fifth major title in May at the PGA Championship and Masters runner-up effort, but who fell out of a guaranteed spot on the last day of qualifying.
“If I would have played a little better at the majors, I think I definitely would have had a really good chance to be on the team,” Johnson told the Post. “But just struggled a little bit in the majors this year, which happens.”
Johnson, 39, joined LIV for its opening event in June 2022 and won $35 million in the upstart circuit’s first campaign, but has managed only five top-10s in LIV events this year.
LIV players were banned from US PGA Tour events so the only time Johnson has faced top PGA rivals this year has been at majors.
Johnson has played on five US Ryder Cup teams, also helping a US triumph in 2016.
