American Ryder Cup hopeful handed major slice of luck ahead of the Tour Championship which keeps his chances alive

Add as preferred source on Google

The Ryder Cup is quickly approaching and Keegan Bradley must now realise that he will have some tremendously difficult decisions to make after the Tour Championship.

Bradley‘s form has dipped massively since his win at the Travelers Championship in June, but he’s still well in the race to feature on the US Ryder Cup team in September at Bethpage Black.

The US Ryder Cup standings are finely poised ahead of the Tour Championship this week, with six players already qualified and up to 10, or maybe even 12, players battling it out for the final six spots.

The Americans do have some big issues though. Collin Morikawa’s woeful form ahead of the Ryder Cup will be giving Bradley sleepless nights, while two-time major champion Justin Thomas has looked like a shadow of his former self recently.

Meanwhile, Bradley himself has been poor of late, while Chris Gotterup‘s Indian summer appears to be over.

There are other players as well who have lost form at precisely the wrong time.

That said, one of them in particular has just been handed a potential lifeline ahead of the Tour Championship this week.

Ryder Cup hopeful Andrew Novak handed boost ahead of the Tour Championship

As things stand, Andrew Novak is very much on the outside looking in, both in a literal sense and a theoretical one.

The 30-year-old is currently sitting in 13th place in the US Ryder Cup points list.

However, considering Cameron Young‘s recent form, strong calls for Patrick Cantlay to be included and a resurgence from Sam Burns, it’s highly unlikely that he will receive a captain’s pick from Bradley.

Novak won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at the end of April alongside his good friend Ben Griffin.

His two previous starts before that victory saw him record a T-3 at the Valero Texas Open and a second place finish at the RBC Heritage.

Over the last three months though, while his fellow Zurich Classic winner Griffin has gone from strength to strength, Novak has been in reverse gear.

Now he has a huge chance to turn everything around.

Obviously a win at the Tour Championship would go a long way to securing his spot on the Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black.

However, even if he doesn’t manage to do that, he will have a huge chance to show Bradley what he’s capable of, after he was paired with the Ryder Cup captain for the first round at East Lake.

And that is a massive slice of luck for Novak due to the fact that the Tour Championship pairings are decided by positions in the FedEx Cup points list.

Talk about a timely boost for Novak. Now it’s up to him to produce the goods when it matters most.

Andrew Novak’s form since Zurich Classic win doesn’t bode well for his Ryder Cup chances

Novak would have been flying high on confidence after winning the Zurich Classic of New Orleans back in April.

However, he has really struggled since then, with just one top 10 to his name in the 11 events he has played.

That form from Novak is certainly not conducive to making the Ryder Cup team.

However, the fact that Bradley will see Novak up close and personal at the Tour Championship for at least one round might just be the chance he needs to send the Ryder Cup captain a reminder of his quality.

He may well play poorly and do nothing to enhance his chances, but he’s most likely not in contention for a spot on the Ryder Cup team right now anyway, so he has nothing to lose.

Conversely, Novak could fire a super low score and go on to contend at East Lake. The fact that he has been paired with Bradley could end up being a Ryder Cup lifeline for him.