LIV Golf rebel Brooks Koepka is missing from the US Ryder Cup picture but Zach Johnson is downplaying the absence

Brooks Koepka missed the Team USA Ryder Cup picture before the start of the competition on Friday.

However, captain Zach Johnson insisted that his absence was due to time constraints as they traveled to Italy.

Koepka is one of 12 American stars who will compete against Team Europe in the 44th Ryder Cup.

He joined the LIV Golf Invitational Series last year and as a result, was later suspended from the PGA Tour.

Before his last competition… Telegraph Koepka’s report to the Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome flew separately for his teammates.

That’s after playing in the LIV Golf Invitational Chicago at the weekend, with Johnson downplaying his absence from the team picture.

Speaking on Monday, he said: “Yes, we all met in Atlanta. Given the time constraints and I don’t know, what’s the word? When should you take off and when should you land?”

“Whatever you want to call it, the takeoffs and landings, time-wise, it seems like it’s best for Brooks to meet us here. He’s already beaten us here.

“But for him to fly from Chicago to Atlanta and for us to wait for him to leave, we would have gotten that later. I don’t think it would have been possible.”

“So he met us here. But he was here two weeks ago with us during our training session.”

Koepka will join fellow stars including Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas on the course for Team USA.

They enter this year’s Ryder Cup as the defending champions after a 19-9 win over Team Europe last year.

Play will begin on Friday morning, with the opening foursomes scheduled to begin at 6:35 a.m. UK time.

talkSPORT 2 will have live commentary from Italy throughout the week starting at 6am on Friday.