The 12th-ranked male golfer in the world will be watching the Presidents Cup from home this week. That would be J.J. Spaun, the 2025 U.S. Open champion, who received a bad-news call from U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker on Monday of last week.
“A 45-second phone call,” is how Spaun described the exchange. “Just said I wasn’t on the team, and said I was the odd man out, and I wished him luck and that was it.”
Perceived snubs are an inevitable part of any team selection that includes a captain’s input. When subjectivity enters the process, so, too, do sour feelings. Happens at the Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup, the Walker and Curtis cups — and, yep, the biennial Presidents Cup, which this week visits Medinah Country Club near Chicago.
But Spaun really believed he was on the fast track to one of Snedeker’s half-dozen picks, going as far to say that recent conversations with the U.S. skipper “led me to believe that I would make the team.”
The stiff-arm could have discouraged Spaun; instead, it inspired him. Six days later — this past Sunday — Spaun won the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, and afterward wasn’t shy about reflecting on the extra motivation that had driven him to victory. “I was pretty determined this week to kind of prove for something,” Spaun said. “My whole career, I’ve kind of had to do that. I wasn’t given scholarships. I had a walk-on. I had to earn my PGA Tour card the hard way. I was never given a sponsor invite opportunities. I just had to do everything the hard way.
“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.”
Maybe it was because before Spaun’s win at Wentworth, he hadn’t notched a top-10 finish since late June. Maybe it was because at the four most consequential events of the year — the majors — Spaun made just one cut (Open Championship, T40). Maybe it was because Snedeker was seeking to fill out his last roster spots with putters, which is not Spaun’s strong suit (he’s 138th in SG: Putting this season).
At Medinah on Tuesday, Snedeker didn’t cite a reason why Spaun came up short, only that Snedeker needed to trust his instincts. “My gut was telling me one thing,” he said. Snedeker added, “I feel awful for J.J., and I always will, because he’s a great dude and I love the guy to death.”
Referencing Gary Woodland — another player who was on Snedeker’s wildcard short list but instead landed on Snedeker’s staff — Snedeker said, ”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.”
A year or so ago, when U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley left a hard-charging Maverick McNealy off his roster, Bradley encouraged McNealy to use the disappointment as fuel. “I said, ‘Please be angry with me and make the next team. Make [the] Presidents Cup team,’” Bradley said. “I used that as fuel most of my career, and I advised Mav to do the same thing.”
Snedeker, on Tuesday, had much the same message for Spaun and the other bubble boys who were left out — Ryan Gerard, Akshay Bhatia and Woodland among them. “I told all the guys that didn’t make the team, like, your job is to go make me look like an idiot as quick 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.”
Spaun now has four months to gather himself before the 2027 Ryder Cup qualification race starts in earnest. That’s because U.S. captain Jim Furyk revamped the U.S. points system to account only for a seven-month window, from the The American Express in January to the BMW Championship in August.
Whatever happens over that 2027 stretch, Spaun can and will still draw from what he accomplished at Wentworth in September 2026. “Not that it’s a Ryder Cup atmosphere out here,” he said on Sunday evening after his win. “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.”
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