The Presidents Cup returns this week with its 14th edition taking place within a golf landscape that’s barely recognisable from when the 13th was held.
It’s hard to fathom that when the United States last duelled with the Internationals, Tiger Woods was the week’s best player, world No.1 Scottie Scheffler hadn’t joined the PGA Tour yet, and Cameron Smith was a baby-faced upcomer without a mullet or moustache.
Three years have passed since the USA won a 16-14 thriller at Royal Melbourne, with Woods going 3-0 for the week to cap off a stunning 2019 season that saw him remarkably win the Masters, too.
Golf couldn’t have changed more since.
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The fact Woods won’t be in action, having seldom played since a horrific car crash in February 2021, is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Presidents Cup will take place at Carolina’s Quail Hollow this year with the game in a state of unrest as warring factions split the game in two.
At no event this year will LIV Golf’s effect on the PGA Tour be more keenly felt than at the Presidents Cup.
There’s no ignoring the fact that both the Internationals and Team USA have suffered major casualties as a result of the Saudi-backed breakaway.
LIV Golf members, including players such as Smith and Dustin Johnson, are not welcome at the biennial team event, which starts on Thursday.
It’s undoubtedly a big blow for the tournament, particularly for the Internationals who once again head in as heavy underdogs.
Nonetheless, the Presidents Cup is still not short on star power with 13 of the world’s top 20 players in action, as well as Australia’s Adam Scott and Cameron Davis.
As always, the Internationals have a major score to settle having lost eight-consecutive tournaments. The team hasn’t won since a big 20.5-11.5 victory at Royal Melbourne in 1998.
Back on US soil, the odds are heavily stacked against the Internationals, but a new-look line-up playing with freedom is sure to set-up an absorbing contest.
AN INTERNATIONAL DISASTER
Both teams are dealing with the loss of star players to Greg Norman’s LIV Golf, but there’s no doubt that the Internationals are worse off.
The loss of Australia’s Smith is huge. Had he not left for LIV Golf, Smith would still be ranked as the second-best player in the world.
He’s still in third behind only Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, although that ranking says nothing about his status as a golfer for the big stage.
This year, Smith won his first major as well as the unofficial fifth major, the Players Championship. Upon joining LIV Golf, he won in just his second start, pocketing a massive $A6 million in Chicago.
He loves team golf, too.
Smith was one of just two Internationals to win their Sunday singles match in 2019, downing then world No.5 Justin Thomas in his Presidents Cup debut. He also finished inside the top-10 for Australia at the Tokyo Olympics, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal playoff by one shot.
A reported $A140 million sign-on fee lured Smith to LIV Golf, but the team aspect of the breakaway tour undoubtedly played a role, too.
The Internationals will miss him dearly.
Also missing to LIV Golf from that 2019 team is Mexico’s Abraham Ancer — still ranked 24th in the world despite leaving the PGA Tour in July — South African veteran Louis Oosthuizen, Australian Marc Leishman and Chilean Joaquin Niemann.
It now falls to a new ragtag bunch to make up the numbers and try to pull off the impossible.
The International team features eight debutants and just 15 Presidents Cups of experience — nine of which belong to Scott.
That might not necessarily be a bad thing, however, as experience has counted for little in recent times.
In 2019, the Internationals gave the Americans a mighty scare, taking a two-point lead into the final day before ultimately losing 16-14. That year, the Internationals had seven rookie players.
Last year, an older, experienced European team, featuring the likes of Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia was routed by a young American crew 19-9 in what was called the Slaughter by the Water.
Furthermore, with such little Presidents Cup experience for the Internationals, there is not as much scarring from previous editions, offering a chance for rejuvenation.
There’s no doubt that this shapes a David vs Goliath battle, but a nothing-to-loose mindset could make the Internationals a dangerous force yet.
TEAM USA TAKES A HIT AS PGA TOUR’S LIV HEADACHE GROWS
Such is the strength of the Americans that their LIV Golf losses have been covered far more easily — but they have still suffered some blows.
The loss of Johnson is surely the biggest, with the two-time major-winner in some strong form on the LIV Golf tour, winning in Boston while he had top-five finishes in Bedminster, Chicago and Portland.
The big-money purses and team golf component appears to be bringing the best out of Johnson, who has now led his team 4 Aces GC to four-consecutive wins.
Also part of that team is Patrick Reed, who has often thrived for Team USA, earning himself the nickname of Captain America.
The 2019 Presidents Cup proved to be a somewhat humbling experience for Reed, however, with the 32-year-old under severe pressure all week. The partisan crowd repeatedly targeted the American, who was embroiled in a cheating controversy on the tournament’s eve after illegally improving his lie in a bunker.
He lost all three of his team events with Webb Simpson before being sat out, although he rallied on the final day when he beat CT Pan four and two.
There’s no doubt Reed would have fancied inflicting some more revenge this year at Quail Hollow — but you cannot have your cake and eat it too.
Outside of those two big losses, also missing from the Team USA selection pool was former major winners Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.
When combined with the losses for the Internationals, the PGA Tour’s massive LIV Golf headache becomes clearer.
While the Presidents Cup is a widely-celebrated tournament for much of the world, it has always struggled to garner anywhere near as much as excitement as the Ryder Cup in the United States.
Not having a full complement of players eligible for selection will only make matters worse.
The PGA Tour will wait and see how this year’s event plays out, however, should it prove to be an uncompetitive bloodbath, it could be forced to consider making concessions for LIV Golf members in the future to keep it alive.
That said, the United States still have a stacked team to build on its massive Ryder Cup success last year.
Of its 12 players, only Kevin Kisner (25) sits outside of the world’s top 20.
The United States has three of the world’s top five golfers in Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, while Thomas (7) and Collin Morikawa (9) also feature from inside the top 10.
By comparison, Hideki Matsuyama is the highest-ranked player for the internationals at No.17.
CURSED AUSSIE RUNNING OUT OF CHANCES
After the Internationals were pipped at the post in 2019, Scott lingered after the press conference, seemingly in disbelief.
It was a quiet moment of reflection, while his pain was evident.
This is a tournament that has had Scott feeling cursed for nearly 20 years.
This will be Scott’s 10th Presidents Cup since his debut in 2003 — and not once has he put a hand on the trophy.
That year ended in a 17-17 tie in South Africa, while the United States has won every edition since in one of sport’s most one-sided rivalries.
During the 2019 tournament in Melbourne, Scott revealed how important it was to him to tick the box of winning a Presidents Cup in his career having suffered so many heartbreaks.
“I think it (winning) would probably mean a lot more to me than I’ve ever thought,” Scott said.
“I see this event carrying on into the future and it will be incredibly disappointing if I played all these and never won a Presidents Cup.
“I feel I’d be missing something.”
Scott’s still missing that something, and his chances of getting it are running out.
It looked like Scott might’ve already played his last Presidents Cup until talks with LIV Golf broke down earlier this year.
LIV Golf chief Norman has since given up on chasing the Australian star, but has left it up to his compatriots Smith and Leishman to pull him over.
That option could yet prove attractive for Scott, but it would likely come at the hefty cost of not ever winning a Presidents Cup in 10 attempts.
That is unless he leads his team to the unthinkable now.
Scott heads into the tournament having found some strong late-season form, being the only person to play himself into every round of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
He finished the Tour Championship in 25th, having claimed consecutive top-five finishes in the two weeks prior, as well as finishing inside the top 15 at both the US Open and Open Championship.
