The 14th edition of the Presidents Cup tees it up this coming Thursday at the Quail Hollow Golf Club in Charlotte. The Presidents Cup is a biennial affair that pits the top 12 golfers from the United States facing the top 12 golfers from an International team. The Internationals are from North America (Canada and Mexico), South America, Australia, Asia and Africa. Because European golfers play in the Ryder Cup, they are not able to be a part of the International team. The Presidents Cup initially began in 1994 and was the Ryder Cup alternative at a time when a handful of great Internationals included Ernie Els of South Africa, Nick Price of Zimbabwe, Vijay Singh of Fiji, Greg Norman of Australia, and Jumbo Ozaki of Japan.
Quail Hollow is a George Cobb design that is well known to both Team USA and the Internationals. It hosted the PGA Tour’s Kemper Open from 1969 through 1979 and then returned as a tour course once again while hosting the Wachovia Championship. That tourney is now called the Wells Fargo. Quail Hollow also hosted the 2017 PGA Championship that was won by Justin Thomas. The tour version of Quail Hollow will be rearranged for the Presidents Cup matches, similar to the way San Francisco’s Harding Park was altered when it hosted the 2009 Presidents Cup, in an effort to play some of the more dramatic holes earlier in the round. Quail Hollow is a power player’s course that plays to a par of 71 and can be stretched out to 7,600 yards. Rory McIlroy has the course record, having shot a 61 in 2015.
The Saudi-backed LIV Tour has had a negative impact upon this year’s Presidents Cup. LIV golfers are not eligible for the Presidents Cup, which means that Team USA will be without stalwarts Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka. The Internationals are impacted as well, losing the services of reigning British Open champion Cameron Smith as well as Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz and Joaquin Niemann. The American team is captained by Davis Love III and his squad includes Masters champ Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, reigning PGA champion Justin Thomas, and Tony Finau alongside captain’s picks Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, rookie of the year Cameron Young and Kevin Kisner. Team USA has four major champions with a career total of eight major championships on this year’s squad.
The International team is captained by former Masters titlist Trevor Immelman. His squad includes Adam Scott, Mito Perreira, Tom Kim, Corey Conners, Hideki Matsuyama, and Sunjae Im. His six captain’s picks were Cameron Davis, Si Woo Kim, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, K.H. Lee, Sebastian Munoz and Taylor Pendrith. Every member of the International team is well known to fans of the game and all 12 make regular appearances on the American PGA Tour. Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama are both former Masters champions. Scott is the elder statesman of the Presidents Cup. This will be his 10th appearance for the Internationals and he owns a 16-22-6 record in the matches.
The assistant captains are always of interest because some of them are in line to become future head captains. The American assistant captains include past captains Freddie Couples and Steve Strickler alongside the next Ryder Cup captain, Zach Johnson, and Webb Simpson. The International assistants include K.J. Choi, Geoff Ogilvy, Camilo Villegas and Mike Weir. Anticipate that someday Simpson will be a captain as well as the four International assistants.
The format for the Presidents Cup is somewhat different from the Ryder Cup. It occurs over four days instead of three. Thursday is opening day and it features five fourball or better ball matches. On Friday the five matches include foursomes or alternate shot. Things get busier on Saturday with four better ball matches in the morning and four alternate shot matches in the afternoon. Sunday is just like the Ryder Cup with 12 individual matches. There is a total of 30 points up for grabs with 15.5 points needed to secure the Presidents Cup. Thus far there has been a marked imbalance when it comes to Presidents Cup competition as Team USA holds an 11-1-1 advantage in the first 13 matches. The last time the Presidents Cup was held, the American team under the leadership of playing captain Tiger Woods eeked out a 16-14 victory over Ernie Els and the Internationals at Royal Melbourne in Australia. As an aside, the Presidents Cup makes a bundle of money due to ticket sales, television and advertising. A percentage of the profits go to charity and all 24 of the contestants get to earmark that money to a charity of their choice.
As for prognosticating the Presidents Cup, one never truly knows because the difference between the best golfer in the world and the 50th-ranked golfer on the planet is historically less than one stroke. Yet on paper this year’s Presidents Cup should be considered a romp for Team USA based on the world rankings. The American squad is much deeper and didn’t seem to be hurt as badly as the Internationals due to defections to the LIV Golf tour.
Team USA has six of the top-15 ranked golfers in the world. Scottie Scheffler is number No. 1, Patrick Cantlay is No. 3, Xander Schauffele is ranked fifth and Justin Thomas is seventh. Tony Finau and Sam Burns are also in the top 15. The lowest ranked International team member, according to the world rankings, is Hideki Matsuyama. He is ranked at 16th. Cam Smith is ranked two. There is also a lot of team experience on the American side due to the fact that Team USA plays every year, one way or another, in a Presidents Cup or a Ryder Cup. The majority of Team USA played last September at Whistling Straits in the Ryder Cup. As earlier mentioned, the last team experience for the Internationals was three years ago in Australia.
Yet as talented as the American team is on paper, great golfers are capable of great golf. The largely unknown Tom Kim won a PGA Tour event this summer. Canadian Taylor Pendrith, one of the longest hitters in the world of professional golf, came back from an injury this summer and had a handful of strong finishes down the stretch to earn his PGA Tour card for 2022-23. Adam Scott has had a rejuvenation of his career as a 40-something. No one plays more golf than the gifted Sunjae Im, so it’s not like he’s tired from a long season and won’t be ready to go.
The Presidents Cup tees it up on Thursday at Quail Hollow in Charlotte. Team USA is heavily favored. However, don’t give the Cup to Team USA right away. There’s a lot of talent out there.
