The players competing in this year’s Presidents Cup, which is taking place at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada from September 27-29, have been announced.
Both teams comprise six automatic qualifiers and six captain’s picks. Team USA is being captained by Jim Furyk, while the International team, which comprises all nations outside of Europe, is being led by Canadian Mike Weir.
Team USA six automatic qualifiers from 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 highest points scorers to make up the rest of the team. They are Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Russell Henley, Keegan Bradley, Brian Harman and Max Homa.
Weir’s team comprises automatic qualifiers Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Adam Scott, Tom Kim, Jason Day and Byeong Hun An, along with captain’s picks Corey Conners, Min Woo Lee, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Taylor Pendrith, Si Woo Kim and Mackenzie Hughes.
Weir has clearly played the home advantage card in picking three Canadians in Conners, Pendrith and Hughes. While Conners finished 7th in the standings, and Pendrith 11th, Hughes was three places outside the top-12 points scorers in 15th.
BRADLEY PLAYS HIS WAY INTO US TEAM
Keegan Bradley had previously been one of Furyk’s vice captains for the matches, but following his win in the BMW Championship earned his way onto the team as a captain’s pick, leaving Furyk to find another assistant.
“When I named Keegan as a captain’s assistant for the Presidents Cup, I knew there was a chance he would play his way onto the team,” Furyk explained. “And I can say without a doubt he did just that. The grit he showed in the final round in Memphis followed by the win in Denver exemplified the competitive nature he has always played with, and I know he will bring that same fire to Royal Montreal in a few weeks.”
As the President’s Cup is a PGA Tour-sanctioned event, players contracted to LIV Golf are not eligible for selection for either team, so the likes of Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are missing from the US team, while obviously candidates Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann were also barred from competing.
INTERNATIONAL TEAM SEEKS TO END LONG LOSING RUN
The International Team will be looking to break a streak of nine consecutive defeats against the Americans, including the most recent 17.5-12.5 loss at Quail Hollow in 2022.
Since the event was introduced in 1994, the International has only won two of the 14 matches, although the two most recent ‘home’ events for the International side resulted in narrow defeats – a 16-14 loss at Royal Melbourne in 2019, and a 15½-14½ loss in South Korea in 2015.