Ryder Cup: Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas among six US wildcard picks

Brooks Koepka won this year's PGA Championship to secure his fifth major

Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas have been named among United States captain Zach Johnson's six wildcard picks for the upcoming Ryder Cup.

US PGA champion Koepka missed out on the points needed to qualify automatically after joining LIV Golf last year.

Thomas failed to qualify for the season-ending FedEx Cup play-offs.

Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa and Jordan Spieth are also picked for the match against Europe.

They join automatic qualifiers Brian Harman, Wyndham Clark, Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay in the 12-man team.

"A lot of time, lot of energy has gone into this process," said Johnson.

"I'm very confident in these six [picks]. That confidence comes from simply surrounding myself with great people.

"These are six guys who make the other guys whole."

The 44th Ryder Cup against takes place from 29 September to 1 October at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club near Rome.

Three of the four major winners in 2023 are on Johnson's team for the tournament.

Harman won The Open, Clark won the US Open and Koepka claimed the PGA Championship.

'You don't leave JT at home'

Thomas, 30, is a Ryder Cup veteran but has struggled this year, missing cuts at the Masters, US Open and The Open and failing to make the playoffs for the first time since 2014.

"Justin Thomas is one of the most talented players on the PGA Tour in my opinion," Johnson said.

"He has been, without question, the heart and soul of US Ryder Cup teams, our emotional leader.

"Overall [he has] a fantastic Ryder Cup record. His passion for the Ryder Cup is very evident. In my mind he is born for this and you just don't leave JT at home."

Two-time major winner Thomas, who carded a round of 81 at the US Open in June and 82 at The Open in July, said he was "very, very fortunate" to be picked.

"You can want something too bad," he added. "I'm sure all of us have tried to win golf tournaments too much and have tried to force the issue, and there were potentially times this season I did.

"Zach has been very vocal and made it sound great that we are all equal on this team. I feel I'm just as important as everybody else and my team-mates have voiced that the same way."

Koepka, who is the only LIV Golf player on the team, could only earn qualifying points towards the Ryder Cup at the major championships because the PGA of America did not count LIV Golf events for their rankings.

"A five-time major champion, he is built in my mind for the biggest of stages and there's no bigger stage than the Ryder Cup," said Johnson.

USA are the holders of the Ryder Cup after a record 19-9 victory in Wisconsin in 2021.

But they have not won on European soil for 30 years, their last victory on the continent coming at the Belfry in Warwickshire in 1993 with a 15-13 win.

European qualification concludes on 3 September after the European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland.

As with the US, the top six European players in the standings will qualify and captain Luke Donald has six picks. He will announce the team on 4 September.

Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Tyrrell Hatton have already secured qualification spots.