What is supposed to be the motivation for a collection of Australians, Asians, Canadians and others from around the globe to come together as a golf team for one week every two years?
Perhaps beating those pesky Americans is the only unifier necessary.
The International Team will aim for its first win since 1998 and the United States will shoot for its 11th straight victory when the Presidents Cup begins Thursday at Medinah Country Club near Chicago.
Australian Geoff Ogilvy said the Internationals’ group chat has never been more active.
“They just seem to be in really good spirits. They’ve been very excited to get here for quite a long time,” the captain said. “I don’t know, it’s just a good-feeling group. I think the time is right.”
This Cup will pit a pair of first-time captains in Ogilvy and the United States’ Brandt Snedeker, though Snedeker has served as an assistant captain in recent years.
It’s up to Snedeker and his team to set up the par-70, 7,548-yard Medinah No. 3 how they see fit.
“It’s obviously a big ballpark, right? We’re talking a very long, difficult golf course,” Snedeker said. “This is a completely new ballpark for us. The green complexes are super difficult. You’ve got lots of slopes on them. I think the team that gets the most comfortable the quickest is going to have an advantage.”
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler — who hasn’t had stellar individual showings at the past two Ryder Cups, where the U.S. lost to Team Europe — called himself “hypercompetitive” in describing how he wants to approach this week.
“Kind of striking the balance between how much do you care, I think that’s something I’m always trying to figure out,” Scheffler said. “Definitely for me, I think just trying less would be really important. It’s just one of those things that’s a lot easier said than done.”
Scheffler qualified through a points system along with Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, Russell Henley and Collin Morikawa. Snedeker’s six captain’s picks were up-and-comers Chris Gotterup and Jacob Bridgeman; veterans Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay; and 21-year-old Jackson Koivun, who just turned pro this summer and won his third event upon doing so.
The International Team is composed of players from anywhere in the world besides the U.S. and Europe. Australia’s Adam Scott is set to play in his 12th straight Presidents Cup — and still seeking his first team victory.
He’s joined by fellow Aussie Min Woo Lee; Open champion Ryan Fox of New Zealand; Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune; Koreans Si Woo Kim, Tom Kim and Sungjae Im; Canadians Corey Conners and Nick Taylor; Colombia’s Nico Echavarria; and Christiaan Bezuidenhout of South Africa.
Often seen as the Ryder Cup’s awkward cousin, the Presidents Cup differs in a few key ways. Chief among them is American superiority: While Europe’s Ryder Cup squads have outperformed the U.S. in recent years, the Americans are 13-1-1 in the Presidents Cup all-time with a 10-match winning streak.
“Often I feel like the U.S. team wins the last couple of holes in matches very often when they’re close,” Scott said. “Even though the scoreline can look big at the end of the week it’s like the 18th and 17th holes goes in their favor and not ours often enough. When I watch Europe play the Ryder Cup, I feel like the 17th and 18th holes goes in Europe’s favor. So, I feel like the matches, even on some of the big differences in score, are closer than they really are. And I don’t think we’re far off, but those final holes and closing out the match is so important in this.”
While the Ryder Cup is crammed into three days, the same five sessions are spread across four days at the Presidents Cup. Five four-ball (best-ball) matches will be played Thursday, followed by five foursomes (alternate shot) on Friday. Saturday is split into two sessions, four four-ball matches in the morning and four foursomes in the afternoon.
But just like the Ryder Cup, all 12 players on each team will take part in singles matches on Sunday with the Cup on the line.
The Americans prevailed 18 1/2-11 1/2 at Royal Montreal Golf Club in 2024. They’ll need 15 points to retain the cup and 15 1/2 to win it outright.
Koivun, a former No. 1 amateur and collegiate star, is the second-youngest player to make a U.S. Presidents Cup team, edged only by 20-year-old Jordan Spieth in 2013. Being so recently removed from college, he has something going for him: match-play experience.
“Match play is something I love and something I’ve played a lot of now for the past couple years,” Koivun said. “Just being able to portray it on this big of a stage is going to be so much fun. I think the key to match play, like I said, is never getting yourself out of a hole.”
Thursday’s five matches feature Scheffler and Burns vs. Lee and Im; Young and Schauffele vs. Matsuyama and Hisatsune; Thomas and Koivun vs. Conners and Echavarria; Clark and Morikawa vs. Fox and Scott; and Gotterup and Cantlay vs. Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim.