The question isn’t whether the Presidents Cup needs saving, though I’ve heard multiple golf fans express their surprise in recent days that the event begins Thursday at Medinah.
It didn’t so much sneak up on them as go unnoticed.
The larger issue with the Presidents Cup is how to make it better or at least more magnetic than it has been because it’s a worthwhile endeavor even if it tends to underdeliver in the drama department.
The simple answer is for the International team to finally win, ending 28 years of American dominance, giving the Presidents Cup a much-needed Keyser Söze-worthy plot twist.
If you lean into analytics or prefer the old-school eye test, this doesn’t look like the year the narrative changes. The Americans may be as heavily favored as they have ever been and, unless Ryo Hisatsune and Nico Echavarria turn into Batman and Robin in soft spikes, the biggest threat to captain Brandt Snedeker’s squad may be complacency.
Snedeker’s earnestness and his stockpile of talent is likely to negate that threat, and in his 12th attempt to finally win the Presidents Cup, Adam Scott will need more than goodwill to get it done this time.
This is the first Presidents Cup since Brian Rolapp arrived as the tour’s interior decorator in chief and given his propensity for rearranging the furniture, there’s no reason to think he won’t want to tinker with what he sees at muscular Medinah this week.
Rolapp could start by reducing the event from four days to three days, packaging the action in a more consumer-friendly way. When the Presidents Cup was played at Quail Hollow four years ago, the buildout and buy-in was spectacular but there were complaints heard in the high-dollar chalets about how little golf was played on Thursday and Friday.
With only five matches on each of those days, there isn’t much golf, especially on the day when they are playing foursomes. Lop off the Thursday competition and turn Friday into an all-day golfathon like the Ryder Cup does.
When the Presidents Cup debuted in 1994, the global landscape was different. It made sense to find a way for Greg Norman, Nick Price, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els to play a team competition against the United States.
As much as the Presidents Cup would like to separate itself from the Ryder Cup, it would be wise to follow the three-day, 28-point model that has helped make the Ryder Cup the most compelling event in golf.
The Presidents Cup doesn’t have the history and the International team doesn’t have the emotional bloodline or depth of talent that the European team has but there is nothing wrong with leaning into something that is proven to work.
Fewer matches also helps the International team, which is typically top-heavy and lighter on the bottom end of its roster. The more matches, the more the American advantage tends to show.
Another thing the Ryder Cup gets right: Setting the pairings.
Make it a blind draw rather than allow the captains to play tic-tac-toe with the pairings. Say Snedeker decides to send Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns out together. International captain Geoff Ogilvy could counter by sending out a weaker pairing, figuring it’s a likely loss anyway so put his best pairings where they have a better chance of earning a point.
When the Presidents Cup debuted in 1994, the global landscape was different. It made sense to find a way for Greg Norman, Nick Price, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els to play a team competition against the United States.
In the first three Presidents Cup, the teams won 48 points apiece, suggesting it was a closer match than it has been in recent years. The gap, however, has become a chasm.
When Snedeker filled out his roster, he added 21-year old Jackson Koivun, the most talked-about young player since texting became a thing, and it meant leaving off J.J. Spaun, who responded to his omission by winning the BMW PGA Championship in England last week, following through on Snedeker’s acknowledgement that someone he left off will make him look like an idiot.
Snedeker didn’t make the wrong decision. It merely illustrates the abundance of options at his disposal.
LIV players are eligible for the Ryder Cup and, especially now that the league has been diminished, the PGA Tour would be wise to consider expanding the eligibility options, at least for the International team.
On the flip side, Ogilvy added Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who sits 99th on the FedEx Cup points list and is in danger of losing his PGA Tour card for 2027. His two top-10 finishes this year came in opposite-field events.
LIV Golf didn’t help the International team, which was gutted in the weeks prior to the 2022 event when captain Trevor Immelman suddenly found himself without Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann, who had qualified on points.
Having Niemann, Smith and the resurgent Lucas Herbert on Ogilvy’s roster this week would make it a fairer fight. It’s why Ogilvy has suggested the International team should have more autonomy in selecting its players. LIV players are eligible for the Ryder Cup and, especially now that the league has been diminished, the PGA Tour would be wise to consider expanding the eligibility options, at least for the International team.
The Presidents Cup could use a renovation. This may be the week that makes it happen.
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