Soon, US Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin will announce his four wild card selections to round out his team’s 12-man roster. The big question is will Tiger Woods be one of those four picks. If Pavin bases his pick on career achievements. there’s no way he doesn’t take Tiger.  But Pavin has given hints he wants to treat all golfers equally, so what if he were to try to reduce everything to impersonal numbers?

One way to do it would be to add Ryder Cup points rankings, official world rankings, and FedExCup rankings.  With eight men already on the team — Phil Mickelson (ranked #2 in the world), Steve Stricker (#4), Jim Furyk (#6), Matt Kuchar (#10) Hunter Mahan (#13), Dustin Johnson (#24), Bubba Watson (#25), and Jeff Overton (#46) — here’s how the best Americans left would rank:

• 1. Zach Johnson 11, 17, 15
• 2. Anthony Kim 9, 16, 27
• 3. Ben Crane 15, 43, 11
• 4. Rickie Fowler 20, 32, 22
• 5. Sean O’Hair 18, 22, 35
• T6. Nick Watney 17, 29, 32
• T6. Tiger Woods 12, 1, 65
• 8. Bo Van Pelt 13, 43, 25
• 9. Ricky Barnes 16, 27, 41
• 10. Stewart Cink 14, 36, 42
• 11. Lucas Glover 10, 30, 63

In that scenario, Tiger’s low FedExCup standing keeps him off the team. But that also gives less weight to Ryder Cup standings.  If we equalize all three standings by how guys rank among the wild card hopefuls, Pavin’s list would look like this:

• T1. Anthony Kim 1, 2, 5
  
• T1.  Zach Johnson 3, 3, 2
  
• 3. Tiger Woods 4, 1, 11
• T4. Lucas Glover 2, 6, 10
  
• T4. Bo Van Pelt 5, 9, 4
  
• T4. Ben Crane 7, 10, 1
• 7. Nick Watney 9, 5, 6
• 8. Sean O’Hair 10, 4, 7
• 9. Rickie Fowler 12, 7, 3
• 10.  Stewart Cink 6, 8, 9
• 11. Ricky Barnes 8, 19, 8

So Zach Johnson seems like a lock, and Anthony Kim would be too if he can show he’s healthy.  I think Tiger Woods definitely has to be in, and maybe Ben Crane?  Picking Tiger looks like one of the two easier picks for Pavin — it’s those last two that look tough right now.  After this weekend’s Deutsche Bank Championship the picture could get clearer though.