It’s crunch time for the Ryder Cup as the PGA Championship this week is the last chance for golfers to earn double points towards making the team this September. The U.S. team is starting to fill out, but there are several spots still up for grabs. The only guarantees right now appear to be Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth. Everything else is fluid.

Captain Davis Love III said on Tuesday that we should not be surprised if he goes off the grid a little bit for his captain’s picks.

“The Olympics, injuries, Brooks [Koepka] was out for The Open Championship,” said Love. “[Daniel] Berger has been out for at least two, three weeks. Jim Furyk was out for … probably missed 10-12 tournaments. Every time he plays, he plays well. So we are going to have to factor in a lot of stuff, including the Olympics. The unofficial points list that’s running in our heads, guys that are really playing well but just don’t have as many starts is going to be a factor.”

So that’s really interesting. Maybe Love is just keeping his options open for the future, but he seems legitimately intent on picking some guys we might not be thinking about right now: the Justin Thomases (25th in Ryder Cup rankings) and Tony Finaus (49th) of the world.

“We know who our team wants as their teammates or their partners,” added Love. “We have a longer list maybe than you would think. When you look at it, you … remember Jack Nicklaus saying, ‘I’m just going to take the top 12 and make it easy.’ When we look past the top 12, we are probably looking a little farther than people think.

“Obviously Phil last year for the Presidents Cup was in the 20s maybe and was picked and was the star of the team. He played unbelievably well in Korea. I don’t know how far Rickie down was in 2010 in Wales, but he got picked because his putter was hot and everybody wanted him on the team. I think we are going to look a little farther down than people are thinking.”

The problem with that right now is that Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka — all presumed picks — are all outside the automatic qualifiers (top eight) as of now. Love needs all three to get inside the top eight to have a chance to exercise his apparently prodigious free will come August and September.

And all of this is of course dependent on how Baltusrol and the FedEx Cup Playoffs shake out.

“What I’m telling Brooks or whoever, ‘Just go play,'” said Love. “‘Just get healthy and go play, and we’ll know if you’re playing well or not. Try to win the PGA Championship, try to win the FedEx Playoffs, and if you’re playing well, you’ll be on the team.'”

Sounds simple enough.