The Presidents Cup, an annual team play event between the USA and an international team that includes players from outside Europe, will begin its 15th renewal on Thursday at the Royal Montreal Golf Club in Quebec.
Team USA will be looking to extend their winning streak to 10 in a row in Canada, undefeated this century. Since the event’s inception in 1994, the USA has won 12 times, just one International (1998), with one tie (2003).
Both teams consist of automatic qualifiers and six selected by the captain. The USA team is managed by Jim Furyk, while the international team is led by Canadian Mike Weir.
Team USA’s six players who qualified on the points list were Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Sahith Theegala.
And Furyk made things easy for himself by picking the next six goal scorers to round out the rest of the team. They are Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Russell Henley, Keegan Bradley, Brian Harman and Max Homa.
Weir’s squad includes automatic qualifiers Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Adam Scott, Tom Kim, Jason Day and Byeong Hun An, as well as captain nominees Corey Conners, Min Woo Lee , Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Taylor Pendrith, Si Woo Kim and Mackenzie Hughes.
Weir played the home advantage card by selecting three Canadians in Conners, Pendrith and Hughes. While Conners finished 7th in the standings, and Pendrith was 11th, Hughes was three places outside the top 12 points in 15th.
Since the President’s Cup is a PGA Tour sanctioned event, players with LIV Golf contracts are not eligible for selection on any team, so guys like Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are not on the US team, while obviously international team players Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann were also banned from competing, greatly closing the chances of the ‘home’ team winning.
COMPETITION FORM
Unlike the Ryder Cup, the President’s Cup spans four days instead of three, with Thursday, September 26 seeing the opening five foursomes matches starting at 4.35pm (UK time), followed on Friday by five foursomes matches from 6.05pm .
Saturday will see the morning foursomes and afternoon fourball matches, while Sunday will see the 12 singles matches starting at 5pm (UK time).
With 30 points remaining, the first team to reach 15.5 points will win the President’s Cup.
WHAT DOES THE PRESIDENT’S CUP LOOK LIKE?
Sky Sports will be showing live coverage of all five sessions in Canada, with 28 hours of coverage over the four days of the tournament along with daily highlights and special Presidents Cup programs.
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