The Presidents Cup is a good idea — in theory

Summer is officially over, but there’s still time for another big golf event as the Presidents Cup tees off tomorrow at venerable Medinah Country Club in Chicago.

The Presidents Cup is, to be honest, a poor man’s version of the Ryder Cup, the emotionally charged biennial match-play competition between the United States and Europe. The Presidents, which is also held every two years and follows a similar format, pits the U.S. against an International team of players from anywhere in the world except Europe. 

In theory, it’s a nice idea. Golf is a global sport, international competition is compelling, and why not give everyone a chance to experience the thrills and chills of a high-pressure team match play showdown? Plus, who doesn’t like taking a crack at the U.S. right now?

Problem is, it’s not a fair fight. Among the top 20 players in the Data Golf world rankings, there are 12 Americans (including seven of the top 10), six Europeans and only two from the rest of the world. Those are No. 9 Si Woo Kim of South Korea, who’s never cracked the top five in a major, and No. 16 Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, who won the Masters in 2021 for his lone major title.

Europe has been able to overcome its talent disadvantage in the Ryder Cup (going 13-9-1 since the event adopted its current composition in 1979) by tapping into a shared sense of continental pride and forging a far superior team spirit than the more individualistic Americans.

But the farther-flung, less-skilled International team has managed just one win and one tie in the 15 Presidents Cup to date and has now lost 10 in a row after its seven-point drubbing in 2024 in Montreal. The Internationals’ lone victory came way back in 1998 in Australia, where Aussie star Greg Norman, South Africa’s Ernie Els and Fiji’s Vijay Singh helped them upset a U.S. squad that included Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

The bright side

Having said all that, the Presidents Cup has one big thing going for it that the Ryder Cup does not: Canadians.

Two of them are playing in this one after Corey Conners and Nick Taylor were among the six captain’s picks made by International leader Geoff Ogilvy. They’re the top two Canadians in the Data Golf rankings, with Conners at No. 58 and Taylor at No. 74, though neither guy cracked the top five in a PGA Tour event this year.

Canadians Conners, Taylor added to International team for Presidents Cup

Taylor is a 38-year-old Presidents Cup rookie. Conners, 34, lost all four of his matches at his Presidents Cup debut in 2022 before Mike Weir added him as a captain’s pick in 2024 in Montreal along with fellow Canadians Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes.

It was an inspired bit of casting as the three guys all grew up together on the Ontario junior golf circuit before playing on the same university team at Kent State. And it seemed to pay off when Conners and Hughes routed Wyndham Clark and Tony Finau in their Friday alternate-shot match. But the Canadian duo lost both of their pairs contests on Saturday and Weir’s three Canucks finished a combined 5-9-0, though Conners did close with a singles win over Finau.

The teams

This year’s International squad also features Matsuyama, Si Woo Kim, fellow South Korean Tom Kim, Australians Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee, and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, who won the British Open in July. They all qualified automatically via a points system. The other four captain’s picks are Colombia’s Nico Echavarría, South Korea’s Sungjae Im, Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune and South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Not exactly household names.

The Americans are led by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who had a bit of a down year on the PGA Tour — at least by his standards. The four-time major champion failed to win a major for the first time in three years, but he still finished second at the Masters and tied for fourth at the U.S. and British Opens. He also went winless for more than seven months (an eternity for Scottie) before winning two of the three FedEx Cup playoffs events, including the $10-million Tour Championship. Scheffler earned more than $30M in official winnings alone this season, plus millions more in FedEx Cup bonuses. Not bad for a down year.

The other automatic qualifiers on the U.S. team are Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, Russell Henley and Collin Morikawa. The captain’s picks by Brandt Snedeker are Chris Gotterup, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Jacob Bridgeman, Patrick Cantlay and 21-year-old PGA Tour rookie Jackson Koivun, who earned his first victory in just his third tournament after turning pro in July. 

The average Data Golf ranking of the U.S. players is about 11th. For the Internationals, it’s about 53rd. Yikes. 

Data Golf’s forecasting model gives the Americans a 79 per cent chance of winning the Cup and puts the Internationals’ odds at 16 per cent. There’s also a five per cent chance of a tie.

The format

If you’re still reading this, you’re probably interested in the details of how the competition works. Think of it as sort of a super-sized Ryder Cup.

Whereas the Ryder takes place over three days, the Presidents goes for four. There’s an extra day of pairs matches ahead of the closing singles contests on Sunday.

In Thursday’s fourball matches, both guys in each pairing play their own ball, and the team uses the better score on each hole. In Friday’s foursomes, also known as alternate shot, teammates take turns playing the same ball. Saturday is a double-header, with fourballs in the morning and foursomes in the afternoon. On Sunday, all 12 players on each team square off for individual matches to close out the competition.

Every contest, whether pairs or singles, is match play. That means whichever side shoots the better score on each hole wins that hole, no matter how many strokes are taken. Whoever wins the most holes wins the match. If tied after 18 holes, the match ends as a draw and both teams get half a point.

A total of 30 matches will be played over the four days, so 15½ points wins the Cup. In the event of a 15-15 tie, the teams share the Cup. This differs from the Ryder Cup, where a draw results in the reigning champion retaining the trophy.