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I've been thinking about the Ryder Cup since last November. No lie. Since Sangmoon Bae flubbed that chip at the Presidents Cup, I've had one eye on Hazeltine for this September's matches between the United States and Europe. That's mostly been an exercise in futility as the Ryder Cup teams aren't truly formed until August or September. But guess what? We're getting close to August and September.

With just one major and the FedEx Cup Playoffs left to go, the two teams are starting to fill out. Here's how the Americans stand with their nine automatic selections after The Open Championship.

  1. Dustin Johnson
  2. Jordan Spieth
  3. Phil Mickelson
  4. Zach Johnson
  5. J.B. Holmes
  6. Bubba Watson
  7. Brooks Koepka
  8. Brandt Snedeker

That leaves four captain's picks with Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler, Scott Piercy, Matt Kuchar and Bill Haas on the outside looking in. Dustin and Spieth could sit out the rest of the year and be on the team. Mickelson has a little work to do but is pretty much a lock. Zach Johnson and Holmes are sitting pretty as well. Then it gets interesting. Watson, Koepka and Snedeker are just 200 points or so ahead of the eighth-place Kuchar.

Captain Davis Love III will have some serious decisions to make depending on how the automatic bids shape up. I would love to see a Justin Thomas (No. 25) or Daniel Berger (No. 16) get a shot.

"J.B. Holmes is built for Hazeltine," Love told RyderCup.com. "So is Zach Johnson, which doesn't make sense, but the wedge game is crucial there. We have a lot of guys in the top 25 who are great with the wedges. Kind of like the Presidents Cup last year, we're not going without Phil Mickelson. We might be at that point again because he's one of best leaders in the world.

"There's a lot to look at. There's a lot of reasons you want to be Captain and a lot you of reasons you don't want to be as you get closer. We're closing in on the tough decisions now."

Yes we are.

Here's a look at the Europeans.

  1. Rory McIlroy
  2. Danny Willett
  3. Henrik Stenson
  4. Chris Wood
  5. Sergio Garcia
  6. Rafael Cabrera-Bello
  7. Justin Rose
  8. Andy Sullivan
  9. Matthew Fitzpatrick

European captain Darren Clarke will only take three captain's picks, and at the moment, he would be choosing from Victor Dubuisson, Soren Kjeldsen, Shane Lowry, Graeme McDowell, Thorbjorn Olesen, Martin Kaymer, Thomas Pieters and Lee Westwood. You have to think Lowry, Kaymer and Westwood would be the three picked out of that group if he had to choose today.

That's a formidable team, too.

So, as usual, the Ryder Cup is going to be completely awesome. What felt like it could be an American rout earlier in 2016 with the way some of the top players were playing has turned, as it usually does, into an extremely even match with the way some of these Europeans are playing.

Hazeltine in September. Can't wait.