The USA team holds their trophy after winning the Presidents Cup golf tournament at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne December 15, 2019. The US team won the tournament 16-14. The last Presidents Cup was so close that the international team went home with renewed hope that they had enough play and enough fighting to defeat the mighty Americans. – Photo by Andy Brownbill of The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, NC — The last Presidents Cup was so close that the international team walked away with renewed hope that they had enough play and enough fight to defeat the mighty Americans.
Sure, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Presidents Cup back a year. Far more disruptive was the Saudi-funded LIV Golf, which drained the experience on the international side.
“It’s something we’ve been looking forward to for the past three years,” said British Open champion Cameron Smith, and 20 days later he was officially announced as a defector to the opposing league.
Joaquin Niemann of Chile and Marc Leishman of Australia also took the money to sign with LIV Golf just two days before the 12-man international team was due to be completed. Louis Oosthuizen, so good in the Presidents Cup that he had a track record despite never playing on a winning team, was among the first to return in June.
US captain Davis Love III was asked if he felt sorry for Trevor Immelman, who was chosen international captain long before LIV was anything more than a Roman numeral.
“I’m feeling bad for the game of golf right now because that’s the story that comes into play,” Love said. “I feel really bad for all of us. But Trevor has a job to do and that’s getting 12 ready guys there and he’s going to focus on that.”
The 14th edition of the Games between Americans and an international team made up of players from outside Europe begins Thursday at Quail Hollow Club and appears to be as one-sided as the record suggests.
The Americans have only lost once, in 1998 at Royal Melbourne in Australia, games that ended 12 days before Christmas. There was a draw in South Africa and then eight straight US celebrations.
The USA are no more than a year away from giving Europe their worst-ever Ryder Cup defeat, 19-9 in Whistling Straits, with a young and hungry team.
The Americans weren’t immune to the defectors – Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau were on that Ryder Cup team – although there was no certainty they would have made it onto that team. Johnson has not won on US soil since the Masters in November 2020 while the others are trying to return from injury.
And the state of American golf is such that replacements are easy to find. All 12 players are among the top 25 in the world rankings.
The international team counters with just three players from the top 25 – former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im and Tom Kim, the 20-year-old South Korean who wasn’t even considered until he won the Wyndham Championship six weeks ago .
Immelman brings eight Presidents Cup rookies to Quail Hollow. Only three players on his team have won tournaments this year. Only two – Matsuyama and Adam Scott – have won majors.
Love’s team has only three players who haven’t won this year. They include two-time Major champion Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young, the PGA Tour rookie who has finished runners-up five times and twice came just one shot for a Major win opportunity.
Now think back to Melbourne in 2019, a Presidents Cup that led the way for the international team until a US rally on the final day and a 16-14 win. Ernie Els was the captain who gave his team a new logo, identity and fighting spirit.
Els said of his team when it was over: “If you look at their record and where these guys are at the moment, they’re going places, I can tell you that.”
Going into a rival guaranteed wealth league wasn’t what he had in mind.
The Americans have five Presidents Cup rookies, although two of them (Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler) have played in the Ryder Cup and two others (Sam Burns and Max Homa) have had three PGA Tour victories in the last 12 months.
It’s one-sided on paper. It’s a one sided story. When the Americans are under pressure, it’s about not being the team that ends up losing.
Immelman does not hide his disappointment at not having Oosthuizen and Smith and Niemann and those who were considered major contributors.
What he has is 12 guys who wanted to be at Quail Hollow. Players who signed up for Saudi riches at LIV Golf knew they were facing a PGA Tour ban, which meant they didn’t have to compete in the Presidents Cup.
“When the players decided in early 2020 to ask me to be their captain – that was before the pandemic, before professional football was fractured and divided – I signed on to a certain set of rules and our team is a team of loyalty,” said Immelman. “Our team is true to its word. We will abide by these rules.
“Those are the 12 players who wanted to be eligible. Those are the 12 players who wanted to be on the team. Those are the 12 I want at the end of the day.”
FILE – International team player Adam Scott of Australia grimaces after missing a putt on the 16th green in his singles match during the Presidents Cup golf tournament at Melbourne’s Royal Melbourne Golf Club on Sunday, December 15, 2019. The last Presidents Cup was so close, the international team walked away with renewed hope that they had enough play and enough fighting to defeat the mighty Americans. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill, file)
FILE – Jason Day celebrates after winning the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, May 6, 2018. The Presidents Cup golf tournament begins on Thursday, September 22, 2022 at Quail Hollow Club. (AP Photo/Jason E. Miczek, file)
