The Cups Runneth Over
Am I a bad guy for rooting for the International team during the President’s Cup?
It’s mostly for the sake of competition. The Americans are now 14-1-1 in this biennial contest that is increasingly hard to justify from the US side. The PGA Tour invented the President’s Cup in 1994 after decades of jealousy of the Ryder Cup, yet another golf ATM that the Tour doesn’t control. It’s the same primal envy that compelled the Tour to build a McMansion at TPC Sawgrass and hand out $4.5 million and a five-year exemption for winning The Players on a golf course that’s arguably the third-best layout within the confines of Ponte Vedra Beach.
One team had a captain whose body of work features 10 PGA Tour wins, including one Tour Championship. The other team was captained by a former US Open champion with 12 wins worldwide and three WGC victories and a directive to unify a team room filled with players from South Korea, Japan, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Colombia.
No offense to Brandt Snedeker, who is a decent fellow, but Geoff Ogilvy had the tougher job, as does every International team captain every two years.
And about that — the US has to cobble together a national team every year, as the Ryder Cup switches off with the President’s Cup. The best American players are handed a workload that is unmatched among European or International players. Yes, the Americans dominate the President’s Cup. It is also true that Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Bubba Watson, Davis Love III, Stewart Cink, and Jordan Spieth are major winners from the United States with losing records at the Ryder Cup during the President’s Cup era. You can’t tell me that the annual workload hasn’t affected those players.
So what to do? The Tour won’t abandon the President’s Cup as long as there are corporations willing to throw money at it. NBC and Golf Channel are desperate for the access. Young players like Jackson Koivun getting reps in a relatively stress-free environment is good for US Ryder Cup fortunes — and you might want to pencil him in for Sunday singles from 2027 until your kids get married.
Ogilvy is regarded as one of the brightest minds in the game, and his reputation as a golf course designer is blossoming. I wonder if the President’s Cup might benefit from giving him another chance or three, the way Europe has handed the keys to the Jaguar to Luke Donald. It might make the President’s Cup more competitive. More importantly, it might make it more interesting.
