The Team, The Team, The Team
This nine-second exchange between Brian Harman and Zach Johnson has the internet thinking that Harman is a Ryder Cup lock
Here's a little spoiler alert for everybody: Brian Harman is almost certainly going to be on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. With his Open Championship victory, he jumped 17 spots in the U.S. standings, which currently has him at third, safely among the six automatic qualifiers. Unless something drastic were to occur—an injury, a complete loss of form in a short period of time or something unforseen—Harman will be in Rome.
Now, that said, there is still some jockeying for position to be done over the next four weeks on the PGA Tour, and some big names will have something to say about the final spots. Max Homa, Cameron Young and Jordan Spieth could still find their way into that top six, which could bump out Brooks Koepka and even Harman. But they'd both still be among the top 12, and given Harman's relationship with U.S. captain Zach Johnson, he would likely be selected with one of the six captain's picks. Of course, Harman has made it clear he wants to earn it, and earn it he has.
Oddly enough, Harman and Johnson had a brief exchange at Royal Liverpool following Harman's victory, and cameras were on hand to capture the exchange for a YouTube series called "Inside the Open." The exchange is all of nine seconds, but Golf Twitter believes those nine seconds have confirmed what we all already know - Harman is Italy-bound:
This is one of those times where the internet is clearly misconstruing what's actually happening here for effect (we're all guilty of that, by the way). What's actually happening - Harman is asking Zach, as the Champion Golfer of the Year, "What happens next?" I.e. where do I go next, what do I do next, etc. Johnson has experience on this front being the 2015 winner of the event at St. Andrews. Hence why Harman was curious for his opinion as to what happens next.
Johnson's "just keep doing what you're doing line" only further muddies the water, though. Does that mean just keep walking forward? Keep doing all the media stuff you need to do? Keep playing well so I can pick you for the team? We're 99.9 percent sure it's one of the first two things, but that 0.01 percent of us wants it to be the third thing. The third thing is way more fun to assume and to discuss and to dissect. Makes the content world go 'round.