Internationals heavily outweighed ahead of Presidents Cup
Cameron Davis and Adam Scott enjoying their practice round together – photo Getty Images
Despite the absence of many of the game’s best players there is a familiar ring to the likely outcome of this week’ 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte in North Carolina.
Once again, the Americans heavily outweigh the Internationals in terms of field strength with only one of that team (Kevin Kisner) outside the top 20 in the world ranking while for the Internationals they can boast only two inside category, namely Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im.
Not that such a scenario is foreign to the Internationals. That has always been the case, and in what was a very similar mathematical pre-event equation at Royal Melbourne in 2019, the Internationals actually led into the Sunday singles by 10 to 8 before being overrun by the Americans on Sunday by 8 to 4 and losing 16 to 14.
There was real hope leading into the final round at Royal Melbourne that the Internationals could pull of their second ever win in the event on a golf course they had won on previously, but it was not to be as the Tiger Woods led team’s superiority in world ranking strength came to the fore.
The closest the International have come in other encounters in addition to their win in 1998 at Royal Melbourne was in 2019 and in 2003 when the teams shared the honours in South Africa after darkness forced a playoff between Tiger Woods and Ernie Els to be halted.
The emergence of LIV Golf has had a significant impact on both sides with as many as six or seven players who might otherwise have been included in the Internationals now excluded due to their association with LIV.
Cameron Smith, Joacquin Niemann, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Anirban Lahiri, Abraham Ancer and possibly Marc Leishman were likely considerations or automatic inclusions in the Internationals but they much now watch from afar as their former teammates look to produce the near impossible.
Dustin Johnson, Bryson De Chambeau, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed might also have been included on the US team in a different time, but the respective teams will have to duke it out with what they have.
Golf does work in funny ways but it is hard to see the Internationals getting close to the powerful Americans although both teams perhaps have significant points to prove given the new dynamic in world golf and that motivation alone will carry them a long way.
