2024 Presidents Cup teams: Jim Furyk choosing Max Homa over Justin Thomas for the U.S. team is indefensible

Here's a truth: Justin Thomas should not have been on the 2023 Ryder Cup team. Here's another: Justin Thomas should be on the 2024 President's Cup team.

While captain Zach Johnson's decision to include Thomas on the United States side for the Ryder Cup in Rome was defensible -- I should know, I defended it at the time -- not picking him in favor of someone like a Keegan Bradley or Russell Henley would have been a legitimate decision given their level of play last fall. 

However, captain Jim Furyk picking Max Homa and Brian Harman over Thomas for the President's Cup in Montreal -- an event the U.S. team has won nine consecutive times -- is actually indefensible.

These are strokes gained rankings among eligible American players from the PGA Tour (which runs the Presidents Cup), per Data Golf.

If you want to argue that Harman is playing better golf than Thomas, you have a case. The numbers are close enough in recent months that one could go either way. If you want to argue that Homa is playing better golf than Thomas, though, there's nothing statistically to defend that position.

The strange part? Furyk said he considered all of this.

"I see [Thomas] as a little bit of a chameleon," Furyk said. "I think he's a smart player. I think he can change. If the golf course had asked for us to hit the ball straight and get it in the fairway and get it in play, he can do that. If it asks you to bomb away and power is more important, I think he does it.

"It has a bearing and a weight on it. I think present form has a bearing and a weight. I think your history has a weight. I think there's a lot of things that go into it. As far as when I looked at my team, when I looked at the record, I know a lot of guys are looking at this summer. I know a lot of guys are looking at the last few weeks of the year. I weigh that in. I also weigh in a body of work. I also weigh in who's played well this season, who's played well the last 12 months. All that's important to me.

"You kind of put it all together, and you've got a big puzzle piece and you try to figure out the best answer."

Somehow, Furyk saw Homa's numbers and preferred that player over Thomas.

Yet J.T. brings more to the table at team events than birdies and bogeys. Many of his peers consider him the ultimate teammate for international events like these.

Here's what Furyk said about choosing to take Homa to Montreal over Thomas: "I look at Max's attributes and look at how he's played the last two years: undefeated record in Charlotte, our best record last year in Rome, and I think then you go to a lot of the intangibles. ... I guess when I say an 'emotional leader,' I also look at kind of the glue, a guy that pulls the team room together.

"That doesn't mean he's the most popular. It just means it comes very natural to Max, whether it's his social media presence, the way he interacts with fans, his take on things -- all golf related. He has a way of drawing folks into him. He's kind of the glue on a team, so ultimately that weighed into the situation. I think there are parts of his game that have been very strong statistically, even through a little bit of a rough break this summer, and I think we can utilize those in Royal Montreal and find a way to make him very productive."

An emotional leader.

Kind of the glue.

A guy that pulls the team room together.

Is Furyk not just describing ... Thomas?

"Definitely J.T. would be a great addition to this team, there's no doubt about it," Furyk added. "He's got a great record. He's an emotional guy, a feisty guy, a leader. He definitely would have been a good pick."

In basically every area, Homa is simply a Great Value version of J.T. right now. 

This is not an indictment of Homa, who has been unbelievable at team events in the past and can be immensely valuable if he's playing well. The problem? He's not playing well. His driver is awful right now. He has lost strokes off the tee in seven of nine events going back to the PGA Championship.

And as Joseph LaMagna recently pointed out, many of the points Homa racked up -- that pushed him to 12th on the Presidents Cup list -- were achieved a year and a half ago.

If Thomas was not there for the choosing, it would not be that difficult to defend Homa's selection. He is playing worse golf than Thomas was last year, but again, Thomas was not picked for that Ryder Cup team because he was playing great golf. He was picked so the team would have a soul. That was basically Furyk's rationale this time around, except, you know, Thomas brings all the same stuff to the table and he's playing much better golf!

It is a tremendous irony that Thomas will miss his first team event since the 2016 Ryder Cup for the reasons he should almost always be included in these teams. He brings energy when nobody else will. He's the chest thumper, the pot stirrer, the catalyst of these American teams. 

Homa can play a similar role on this year's U.S. team, but if the Americans lose a Presidents Cup for the first time since 1998, do not forget that they had an opportunity to bring a core of their team to Montreal but instead decided to leave him home.

Why? Who knows? Furyk largely danced around the question.

But if the U.S. team loses the Presidents Cup for the first time this century, there will certainly be many more questions.