Is this finally the year when the International team wins the Presidents Cup?
Perhaps more importantly, does the future of the Presidents Cup hinge on an International victory?
The inescapable reality of the Presidents Cup, which begins today at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada, is its one-sided competition – the Americans have won 12 of the 14 matches, with one tie and only one loss – which has undercut the event’s gravitas.
It’s hard to manufacture a rivalry, even one stretching back 30 years, when the same team wins almost every time.
Adam Scott is playing in his 11th Presidents Cup, and he’s never been on the winning side.
The only time the International team won was at Royal Melbourne in Australia in 1998 – four years before International team member Tom Kim was born.
Since being named the International captain, Mike Weir has downplayed the “it’s time to win” angle with his team, believing that his players don’t need to be reminded of the past. They know the history.
This year, in Canada where the 54-year-old Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, is a national sports legend and there are three Canadians on his team, is its own individual event. Framed by thousands of Canadian fans in a golf-rich country, the 15th Presidents Cup has pieces in place to change the narrative, but Weir said the event is bigger than the scores.
“The score the last bunch of years has gone the U.S.’s way, but they’ve been very competitive matches. Here we are, like I said, it’s much bigger. As Ernie’s [Els] talked about a bunch of times, we’re hitting somewhere around 6 billion people around the world with the International team. Globally, it’s huge,” Weir said.
“I think it’s heading the right direction no matter what happens. Sure, it’s competitive. We want to win. We’re not putting any of that extra, We need to do this, to elevate the event. There’s been nothing from the [PGA] Tour like, You guys had better win, or something like that. There’s been nothing like that.”
It’s the golf, though, that needs to drive the event the way it does between the Americans and the Europeans in the Ryder Cup. That is the unavoidable comparison for the Presidents Cup.
From a business standpoint, the Presidents Cup continues to grow. Two years ago at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, the event set sales and hospitality records. It’s sold out in Canada, and two years from now at Medinah near Chicago, hospitality records are expected to be set.
It’s the golf, though, that needs to drive the event the way it does between the Americans and the Europeans in the Ryder Cup. That is the unavoidable comparison for the Presidents Cup. Seeing what the Ryder Cup had grown into and sensing an opportunity to capitalize while inviting the rest of the world to participate led to the Presidents Cup, which debuted in 1994 and is played biennially in years when the Ryder Cup is idle.
It has worked to do the right things, getting American presidents to participate, and making it a goal for players to make the team. It has not, however, developed the rare passion that fuels the Ryder Cup.
There is plenty of emotion – we’ll see it in the fist pumps, the high-fives and the furrowed brows this week – but it hasn’t yet fully captured the fascination that the Ryder Cup has. Speaking with some golf fans this week, more than one hadn’t realized the Presidents Cup was being played and said they planned to watch football instead.
That’s the next step in the evolution of the Presidents Cup – getting the full emotional buy-in from fans – and it may take the Internationals winning the way it happened when the Europeans began slapping down the Americans in the Ryder Cup in the mid-1980s, shortly after Great Britain and Ireland expanded its team to include the continent of Europe.
It would also help if the event were to be condensed to three days, compacting the action. Stretching it over four days feels like one day too many.
There have been suggestions – on talk shows and other media outlets – that another American victory might lead to a reconsideration of the Presidents Cup model. There is no indication that the PGA Tour, which owns the event, is considering revamping the matches but some believe that making it a mixed event with six men and six women on each side would make it more compelling and competitive.
That notion would evaporate if Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Jason Day and their crew take down an American team that starts with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and world No. 2 Xander Schauffele.
The past two Presidents Cups outside the U.S. – in Melbourne in 2019 and South Korea in 2015 – came down to the final matches. Along the way, the International team has taken steps to create its own identity with a team shield, team colors and a more integrated approach that stretches beyond the event itself.
Now, it comes down to winning.
“I really want to hold the cup,” Kim said. “I feel like we have a really, really good chance this year. We’re so close. It’s just a matter of us 12 players actually performing and getting out there, getting the job done. It’s not skill. It’s really not skill. People may think we’re against the odds, but it’s really not.
“It’s just about doing it. It’s not anything else. It’s just about going and literally taking what’s ours. We’re not that far off. We’re not. It’s not like we lack anything. It’s just really taking it. It’s a matter of doing it.”