Two years removed from their triumph over the International Team at the Quail Hollow Golf Club, the United States Golf Team seeks to recapture their unprecedented tenth consecutive Presidents Cup next week under the stewardship of captain Jim Furyk. The United States has historically dominated the Presidents Cup, winning every biannual competition since 2003, and only losing once in 1998. The cup will be held at The Royal Montreal Golf Club in Quebec, Canada, with Day 1 of play beginning on September 26, 2024. Canada will play host to this competition in its 30-year history, with the United States entering as heavy favorites once again.
The Presidents Cup is a four-day, match play event with 30 matches, and 12 players on both the United States and International Teams competing. Any professional golfer can qualify for the International Team, as long as they are not from the United States or Europe, as a European Team plays the United States as well in the Ryder Cup. Additionally, members of the LIV Golf League, rivaling the PGA Tour, are barred from competing in the Presidents Cup, as it is run by the PGA Tour. The magic point total to win the cup is 15.5 points, with each match worth a point. The format for the Presidents Cup is as follows:
Day 1: Five matches, fourball or foursome
Day 2: Five matches, fourball or foursome (opposite of Day 1 format)
Day 3: Eight matches, fourball and foursome matches split the morning and afternoon
Day 4: Twelve matches, all singles matches
While the Presidents Cup administrative body has tinkered with the format on Days 1 through 3 over the years, the Day 4 singles match format has remained a final day tradition, in which all golfers from both teams compete. Foursome matches are played in an alternate shot format with two-man teams, while fourball matches entail all four players using their own ball in a format known as “best ball,” with teams taking their best score from that hole. While tournaments on the PGA Tour, LIV Golf League, and DP World Tour are played in a stroke play format, the Presidents Cup follows a match play format where holes are won and lost, and can be conceded by players, rather than adding every stroke from the 18 holes played.
The selection process to compete in the Presidents Cup is very competitive, as the United States and International teams are both composed of six automatic qualifiers and six captain’s picks. American players qualify based on FedExCup point totals accrued across the season, while International players qualify based on the Official Golf World Ranking (OWGR) points system. These are the six automatic qualifiers for the United States and International teams:
United States: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Sahith Theegala
International: Hideki Matsuyama, Tom Kim, Sungjae Im, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Ben An
The six other competitors for both teams are selected by the team captain, and the players selected through this process are not always close to an automatic qualifying spot. Instead, captain’s picks tend to be players who have traditionally played well in match play tournaments and previous Presidents and Ryder Cups, even if they have not excelled in the months leading up to the competition. On the contrary, players can also be selected if they have been playing strong golf in the weeks leading up to the event. In as much of a tradition as the competition itself, these picks are scrutinized by the media and fans, and a poor player selection from a captain can cost his team the Cup. Here are the captain’s picks for this year’s Presidents Cup, selected by captain Jim Furyk of the American team, and captain Mike Weir of the International team:
United States: Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Max Homa
International: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith, Mackenzie Hughes, Si Woo Kim, Min Woo Lee
While the United States won their ninth consecutive Presidents Cup in 2022, they recently lost the 2023 Ryder Cup to Team Europe at the Marco Simeone Golf and Country Club in Rome following a lackluster performance. Additionally, Jim Furyk served as the United States captain in the 2018 Ryder Cup, where they were outclassed and dominated by a more prepared and professional European team. A burning question for the United States will be if they can put their collective demons from recent failures to rest, and learn their lessons from their humbling defeat in Rome. The United States team arrived in Rome a mere four days before Day 1 of the Ryder Cup, and immediately they fell behind, getting swept 4-0 on the first morning of play, unable to recover from that deficit. Captain Jim Furyk insists that this year will be a different story: “We’re going up early; we’re going to prepare. [The American players] have it in their mind they’re going to be sharp.” To the benefit of the Americans as well, they won’t have a long flight to Montreal, nor will they have to account for a shift in time zones, meaning that all signs point towards a smooth preparation for the United States for this year’s Presidents Cup.
On a more pessimistic note for the United States, they will be competing without some accomplished veterans who once were key stalwarts on this team just a few years ago. Stars like Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, and Brooks Koepka were not included in the Presidents Cup lineup despite being selected for the 2023 Ryder Cup a year ago. While each of them have been excluded for different reasons, perhaps the Americans will miss all of them equally in this intense competition where they have previously thrived. Jordan Spieth’s skill around the greens was a tremendous asset in previous Presidents Cups, but he recently underwent wrist surgery, preventing him from competing in this year’s edition of the competition. Justin Thomas will be missed for both his fiery spirit and clutch play, which he always seemed to conjure in match play, regardless of his recent form; he was not selected due to his inconsistent play throughout the season. Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are players that every captain would want on their team, as their consistent play and strong mental game in big moments has seen them capture five and two major tournaments, respectively. However, their involvement in the controversial breakaway golf league rivaling the PGA Tour, the LIV Golf League, immediately sees them unable to play in the Presidents Cup. While the United States team looks primed for another strong performance against the International squad, they will have to do it without several key figures who have proven invaluable in previous competitions.
The International team, on the other hand, are relying on their stars like Hideki Matsuyama and Jason Day to lead the way. Their success is incumbent on the strong play of their veteran leaders, who will hope to start strong in front of a pro-International crowd in Canada. Matsuyama, a former Masters champion, possesses the skill and mental fortitude to best any golfer on the tour, but he recently withdrew from the BMW Championship with a back injury. With an up-and-down Presidents Cup record of 7-10-5, a major question entering the week will be whether Matsuyama will be healthy and dominant, or an injury-plagued shadow of himself.
Jason Day will need to have a strong showing if the International team is to capture the Presidents Cup as well, coming off a strong season on tour in which he finished 33rd in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Standings. While Day is a seasoned veteran and has been one of Australia’s top golfers for the past decade, he has not competed in the Presidents Cup since 2017. The main talking point of Day’s Presidents Cup career has not been a good one—in 2015, he entered the competition winning an unprecedented four of his seven starts, including the PGA Championship at the illustrious Whistling Straits Golf Course. He was widely recognized as the hottest golfer in the world entering the competition, but he struggled to find form throughout the week, finishing with a poor record of 0-4-1 in what ended up being an incredibly close competition, with the United States winning the Presidents Cup by a mere point. The Internationals will need strong and consistent play from Jason Day to give the United States a run for their money in Montreal.
While the International team may have slightly better odds at this year’s Presidents Cup due to the key absences of American stars like Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, among others, the United States is still a star-studded squad with the current best players in the world, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele; both have proven their acumen in match play competition. They enter the competition as -400 favorites according to BetMGM Sportsbook, and American fans have every reason to expect their team to recapture the Presidents Cup for an extraordinary tenth consecutive time. Although the Internationals are an extremely talented team in their own right, the United States should face few obstacles on route to another Presidents Cup victory.
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