CHASKA, Minn. — The way Ryan Moore remembers it, he has been fitted for team clothes as a potential player for at least the last four Ryder Cup teams, and never once made the team.
This year, Moore was not even invited for a fitting. Yet here he is: The 12th and final member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, the 11th-hour pick and beneficiary of the “Billy Horschel Rule.’’
For Moore, the disappointment of losing the Tour Championship to Rory McIlroy in a playoff Sunday at Eastlake in Atlanta barely had a chance to set in. He and his family were about to get on a plane to fly home to Las Vegas when U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love called his cellphone.
“Hey Ryan, do you want to go to Minnesota?’’ Love asked Moore.
“It was an amazing phone call to get,’’ Moore said Tuesday.
“Obviously, I was ecstatic. Until I got the phone call, I still really didn’t know. But at that point, I knew I had done everything I really could in my power besides winning the golf tournament to show them where my game’s at and that I could be an asset to the team. It’s been a crazy 48 hours ever since then.’’
Moore flew with his family back to Vegas, got a few hours of sleep, flew to Minnesota on Monday afternoon and was at Hazeltine on Tuesday for a practice round.
“This game has ups and downs and when you get those kind of ups, you just embrace them,’’ Jordan Spieth said. “I’m sure that’s what Ryan’s doing. Ryan is obviously in very good form. Made some huge putts, plural, at the end [of the Tour Championship] in very high-pressure situations, which is nice to carry over into what we all experience at the Ryder Cup.’’
Moore, who was a decorated match-play team player as an amateur, has not played a team event since the 2004 Walker Cup.
“This is all very, very new to me,’’ Moore said. “I’ve never been on any of these teams.’’
Asked what he had planned to do this week, Moore said: “A whole lot of nothing was what was going to happen this week. I had played a lot of golf. I had played eight out of the last nine weeks. So this would have been a complete week off for me, just at home with the family. But, I’m definitely happy I have something to do this week.’’
Moore finished 20th in the Ryder Cup points standings, 12 spots out of an automatic place on the team. He has been, for most of the year, the longest of long shots to make the team.
“The funny thing is, I’ve been fitted for every team event, I think, for about the last 10 years,’’ Moore said. “I did not do the fitting this year. So apparently I’m not going to do it from now on. Ever.’’