English, Berger, Scheffler and Schauffele will all make their Ryder Cup debuts, while Spieth, in his fourth appearance, and Finau were part of the US team that was defeated 17½-10½ by Europe three years ago.
“We are looking for the best players to perform here at Whistling Straits and these six guys that we have chosen, we feel like (they) fit the Whistling Straits perfectly,” Stricker said at a press conference on Wednesday.
These six players join Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay, who automatically qualified based on points earned from performance over the past two years.
Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion who was part of the Ryder Cup squad that year, is the best American player to lose a captain’s pick.
“It was a very, very difficult call, I lost sleep over that,” Stricker said. “He’s an outstanding competitor, he brings a lot to the game of golf, his record here at the Ryder Cup is pretty damn good.
“It was a very difficult call, it wasn’t easy. It was just the uncertainty of his health and really the lack of play that led to our decision along the way.”
Reed was hospitalized with bilateral pneumonia last month and was back in action at last week’s Tour Championship.
The United States has only won two of the last nine Ryder Cups, with this year marking the 43rd edition of the tournament having been postponed from last year due to the pandemic.
Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Paul Casey, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland all earned automatic qualification for Team Europe based on the World and European points lists.
Four more automatic qualification spots are still up for grabs, plus three picks from captain Padraig Harrington to be announced on Sunday.
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