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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
South Korea’s Sungjae Im and Australia’s Min Woo Lee were born in 1998, the same year the International team captured its only Presidents Cup victory with a 20½-11½ win at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
South Korea’s Tom Kim wasn’t born for another three-plus years.
The U.S. team won 10 of the next 11 Presidents Cup; the teams tied 17-17 in 2003.
The Americans have a 12-1-1 record in the event and carry a nine-match winning streak into the Presidents Cup that tees off Thursday at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada.
With world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler, two-time major champion Xander Schauffele and other PGA Tour stars leading the U.S. squad, it doesn’t figure to get any easier for their counterparts this week.
“I think it’s just a fact, just dealing with reality,” International team captain Mike Weir said. “I think that’s the thing for me, even as a player myself, trying to deal with reality and what’s in front of you. No doubt, that’s what’s in front of us. So we’ve got a tall challenge, but the guys are up for it, they’re ready for it and they’re embracing that.”
Here are some of the biggest storylines at the Presidents Cup:
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International
Team U.S.
Our prediction
International
Why it will win
Upsets happen in sports, they just don’t occur very often at the Presidents Cup. The International squad has dropped nine straight Presidents Cup to the U.S., including a 17½-12½ defeat at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2022.
The International team has fared better in competitions outside the U.S. In 2019, the U.S. won 16-14 at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia. The Internationals led 10-8 after four sessions, but the Americans rallied and went 8-4 in singles. Playing captain Tiger Woods went 3-0 in the event.
Four years before that, the U.S. won 15½-14½ at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in South Korea, matching its most narrow victory. That one came down to the final hole of the last singles match between Bill Haas and Sang-Moon Bae, the local favorite. Bae flubbed a chip on the par-5 18th hole, giving Haas a 2-up victory for the winning point. Haas made the team when captain Jay Haas, his father, used one of his two captain’s picks on his son.
The only tie in Presidents Cup history was a 17-17 stalemate in South Africa in 2003. The International team’s lone victory was a 20½-11½ rout at Royal Melbourne in 1998. That U.S. team had the top four golfers in the world — Woods, Mark O’Meara, David Duval and Davis Love III — but was no match for the Internationals that week.
This International team features three Canadians who made the team with captain’s picks by Canadian Mike Weir. If Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith are playing well, maybe the fans can pull them to a monumental upset. It would also take strong play from the International team’s best golfers — Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, Australia’s Adam Scott and South Korea’s Sungjae Im and Tom Kim.
“It’s a big part of this competition, I believe, and a big part of team golf where you can ride some momentum and the crowd gets behind you, and you can really feed off that,” said Weir, who upset Woods 1 up in Sunday singles in the U.S. team’s 19½-14½ victory at Royal Montreal Golf Club in 2007.
“[It] certainly did here in 2007, not only with my match playing Tiger, but just the other matches. You get the crowd’s energy, and you can raise your level a little bit, so it can be a huge factor. We’re certainly hoping the fans come out hard and cheer a lot for our guys. Hopefully, it is a factor.”
Weaknesses
Along with history being on the U.S. team’s side, the Americans are also more talented, at least on paper. Each of the 12 golfers on the U.S. roster are ranked in the Top 25 of the Official World Golf Ranking, led by Scheffler (No. 1), Schauffele (No. 2), Collin Morikawa (No. 4), Wyndham Clark (No. 6) and Patrick Cantlay (No. 9). Max Homa, who has scuffled throughout much of the season, is the lowest ranked golfer at 25th.
Four of the golfers on the International team — Matsuyama (No. 7), Scott (No. 18), Im (No. 21) and Kim (No. 24) are ranked in the Top 25. Hughes is the lowest ranked golfer at 61st.
The average OWGR ranking for the U.S. team is 12.4; it’s 34.4 for the International squad.
Talent isn’t the only reason the International team faces an uphill climb. While the U.S. team is playing for the red, white and blue, the Internationals struggled in the past to find a common thread. Language barriers and cultural differences have also been an issue.
In 2019, then-captain Ernie Els introduced a black-and-gold shield to try to unite the International team.
“It’s something that’s been a challenge for our teams over the years,” Weir said. “What we already created with 2019 with the shield, and a lot of things we’ve implemented teamwise, just team dinners, guys playing practice rounds together, getting together with one another a lot more, that gap has shrunk quite a bit. The guys really interact with each other a lot more.”
The International team includes four golfers from South Korea, three each from Australia and Canada and one from Japan.
“It’s different [from] the U.S. team, it just is,” Weir said. “We have, obviously, all these cultural differences. Not that they don’t have differences too, but ours is just some cultural things. It’s gotten a lot better, and our guys have a great vibe going. I like where our team is at right now.”
Rookie assessment
There are only two rookies on the International team: Hughes and Australia’s Min Woo Lee.
Hughes, 33, was a bit of a surprising captain’s choice for Weir. The two-time PGA Tour winner hadn’t done much before tying for fourth at last week’s ProCore Championship in Napa, California. He had four top 10s in 23 starts on tour; he tied for seventh at the RBC Canadian Open in early June.
Lee, the younger brother of LPGA star Minjee Lee, is a three-time winner on the DP World Tour, most recently at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship in 2023. He had a good run in the first three majors this season, tying for 22nd at the Masters, 26th at the PGA Championship and 21st at the U.S. Open. He missed the cut at The Open.
The 26-year-old was twice a runner-up on tour, at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches on March 3 and the Rocket Mortgage Classic on June 30. Lee is strong off the tee but struggled with his irons (134th in strokes gained: approach) and on the greens (113th in strokes gained: putting).
Lee’s personality will make him a crowd favorite in Montreal.
Golfers who should play all five matches
International team captain Trevor Immelman relied heavily on his top golfers at Quail Hollow, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Weir do the same in Montreal.
Matsuyama (1-3-1), Im (2-2-1), Scott (2-3) and Tom Kim (2-3) played five matches in 2022. Conners (0-4) and Si Woo Kim (3-1) competed in four.
Matsuyama is inarguably the International team’s most talented player. He picked up two more PGA Tour victories this past season at the Genesis Invitational and FedEx St. Jude Championship. A back injury forced him to withdraw from the BMW Championship, the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs. He returned and tied for ninth at the Tour Championship.
Hero pick
Scott is making his 11th appearance at the Presidents Cup, which is second most in the event’s history; Phil Mickelson played in 12. Scott has never been on the winning side — he was a 23-year-old rookie when the teams tied in South Africa in 2003.
Ending the International team’s drought very much matters to the 2013 Masters champion.
“You can hear how much he wants to win one,” Australia’s Jason Day said. “I think it’ll only take one. If we can get one, I think that’ll change the tide a little bit.”
Scott, 44, was also in great form at the end of the FedEx Cup schedule, finishing second at the Scottish Open and tying for 10th at The Open. He tied for second at the BMW Championship and for fourth at the Tour Championship.
Risky pick
It wasn’t a surprise that Weir picked more than a couple Canadians with his captain’s choices. He probably would have chosen one or two more if Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor had played better down the stretch.
Hughes is a bit of a risk. He struggled with a driver and irons in his hands this season — he was 142nd in strokes gained: off the tee (-.286) and 137th on approach (-.275).
Hughes made the team because of his short game, where he ranked third in strokes gained: around the green (.444) and fifth in putting (.651).
Weir is counting on him to make some big putts this week.
United States
Why it will win
Because that’s what the American team does at the Presidents Cup. Given the U.S. dominance, it has become one of the most one-sided international team competitions in the world.
While the U.S. team has struggled in losing eight of the past 11 Ryder Cups and hasn’t won in Europe since 1993, that hasn’t been the case in this event.
“I think a lot of it is [that] our team room looks different in both events,” U.S. captain Jim Furyk said. “I think the guys put a lot of pressure on themselves. They try a little too hard. They push in the Ryder Cup. They want to prove everyone wrong, and sometimes maybe when you try too hard, you kind of get in your own way, if that makes sense.”
Furyk, 54, played in nine Ryder Cups, winning just twice. He was on the wrong end of a 17½-10½ loss at Le Golf National in Paris as the U.S. captain in 2018.
“It was easy to say we just didn’t care,” Furyk said. “I saw grown men crying in the locker room after some of those events. That always frustrated me, but there’s not much you can do about it. I think in this event we play a little bit more loose, we play a little more free.”
Weaknesses
If the U.S. team has had a shortcoming in recent Presidents Cups, it came in four-ball (best ball) matches on away courses. In fact, the International team has a 12-6 advantage in that format in the past two events played outside the U.S.
The International team grabbed an early 4-1 lead in four-ball matches on the opening day at Royal Melbourne, putting the Americans in an early hole that they nearly didn’t climb out of.
At Quail Hollow, the U.S. had a 10-4 lead after three sessions, then went 1-3 in four-ball matches to give the International squad a sliver of hope.
“We’ve been comfortable using our analytics guys, I think, since 2019,” Weir said. “Ernie brought them on board, and they’re familiar with me now and our other assistants. Same thing, I lean on my assistants as well, lean on my gut on certain things when we’re maybe on the fence, but it’s very important.”
Rookie assessment
There are four Presidents Cup rookies on the U.S. team, but they’re hardly newbies when it comes to professional golf. They include 2023 U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and 2023 Open Championship winner Brian Harman, along with Sahith Theegala and Russell Henley, who are ranked Nos. 11 and 14 in the OWGR, respectively.
Harman was one of the bright spots for the U.S. team in last year’s Ryder Cup, going 2-2 at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club. Clark went 1-1-1 in that event.
Theegala and Henley, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, are making their first appearances in an international team competition as pros.
“I probably bring a different style of game,” Theegala said. “A lot of these guys are just, I mean, robots, for lack of a better word. They hit it so good, and point A to point B pretty much every time. I feel like I bring a different flare for match play. I tend to hit it everywhere at times.”
“I’m not going to compare myself to [Jordan] Spieth, not even close. But try Spieth-like at times with just trying to get creative and escapes. Nobody is going to be able to match that guy, but just a little more creative ways to the green. I’m a scrambler. I’m kind of a scorer.”
Golfers who should play all five matches
There were only three U.S. golfers who competed in all five matches at Quail Hollow, and Sam Burns is the only one who is in Montreal.
Spieth went 5-0 in the last Presidents Cup, but struggled with his form while battling a wrist injury this season. He had season-ending surgery in late August. Justin Thomas, who didn’t get a captain’s pick, went 4-1 two years ago, but once again struggled on tour.
Scheffler, Schauffele, Cantlay, Finau and Homa competed in four matches at Quail Hollow. Scheffler and Schauffele were the two best golfers on the PGA Tour this season, so it would be a surprise if Furyk doesn’t roll them out for all five sessions, unless they’re struggling in Montreal.
Hero pick
As good as Scheffler has been the past two-plus seasons, winning 13 times on the PGA Tour since February 2022, capturing two green jackets at the Masters and claiming a gold medal at the Olympics in Paris, his performance in the past two international team events has been surprising.
Scheffler went 0-3-1 at the 2022 Presidents Cup. He and Kevin Kisner were the only U.S. golfers that didn’t earn a full point.
At the 2023 Ryder Cup, Scheffler went 0-2-2. Scheffler, Spieth and Rickie Fowler were the only U.S. golfers that didn’t win a match in Rome.
“After the Ryder Cup last year, it was obviously pretty disappointing, but I don’t know how to compare that to anything else,” Scheffler said. “That was a week in which I was hoping to play well and I wasn’t able to get it done. It kind of felt like missing the cut at a major championship would be a good comp for that, but I really don’t know. I treat each one of them individually.”
Scheffler was the most dominant golfer on the planet. He’s too good not to turn it around in team events.
Risky pick
Almost everybody loves Max Homa. He’s one of the more friendly golfers on tour and is by far the funniest on social media. Homa’s track record in his past two international team events would make him a no-brainer choice for a captain’s pick.
At Quail Hollow, Homa went 4-0 in his Presidents Cup debut. Then he was the top U.S. points earner at the Ryder Cup in Rome, securing 3½ points with a 3-1-1 record.
Homa struggled mightily on tour since mid-May, however, and didn’t have a top-10 finish since tying for eighth at the Wells Fargo Championship. After missing the cut in the U.S. Open, Homa’s next six finishes went like this: T61, T70, T43, 70, T33, missed cut. Ouch.
Prediction
Unfortunately for the International team, it’s going to be much of the same in the Presidents Cup. The U.S. squad is too talented and deep. The U.S. runs away with a 17-13 victory, running its winning streak to 10 in a row.