Selecting a team for the Ryder Cup is not the most difficult task every two years, but pairing  teammates and knowing who to match them against is no easy feat. Since golf is an individual sport 99% of the time, there’s no good formula for putting a team together that can ensure winning results. For Captains, the difficulty of picking players is slightly lessened because there are only three picks to make. The rest of the team is put together through a qualifying process. 

Team USA Captain Tom Watson had the unenviable task of having to decide whether or not to include Tiger Woods on the team when he was clearly suffering through injury and playing poorly. Lucky for him, Woods took the decision out of his hands and withdrew from consideration. Watson chose Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson and Hunter Mahan as his 2014 Captain’s picks. 

Team Europe Captain Paul McGinley also faced some tough decisions with his Captain’s picks, finally settling on Ian Poulter, Stephen Gallacher and Lee Westwood so round out the 2014 Team Europe roster. McGinley chose to leave off Luke Donald and Joost Luiten, as well as Miguel Angel Jimenez (who he later made a Vice Captain). Those three exclusions were the highest ranked players to not make the team. 

Here are the final 2014 Ryder Cup rosters:

Team USA

Captain - Tom Watson

Vice Captains - Raymond Floyd, Andy North, Steve Stricker

Roster

Keegan Bradley

Rickie Fowler

Jim Furyk

Zach Johnson

Matt Kuchar

Hunter Mahan

Phil Mickelson

Patrick Reed

Webb Simpson

Jordan Spieth

Jimmy Walker

Bubba Watson

 

Team Europe

Captain - Paul McGinley

Vice Captains - Des Smyth, Sam Torrance, Jose Marie Olazabal, Padraig Harrington, Miguel Angel Jimenez

Roster

Thomas Bjorn

Jamie Donaldson

Victor Dubuisson

Stephen Gallacher

Sergio Garcia

Martin Kaymer

Graeme McDowell

Rory McIlroy

Ian Poulter

Justin Rose

Henrik Stenson

Lee Westwood