by Rosters for the Presidents Cup at the end of September are officially set! Jim Furyk and Mike Weir each unveiled their respective captain’s picks on Tuesday, sparking the usual social media arguments about the final choices and potential snubs.
Getting outraged about captain’s picks has become one of golf’s great traditions. Today we’ll look at each group of selections and assess whether outrage is warranted.
The United States Team
Captain Furyk selected Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, and Max Homa as his captain’s picks. These players join the auto-qualifiers already on the roster: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Sahith Theegala, Patrick Cantlay, and Wyndham Clark. This is the first Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup since 2012 that will see neither Justin Thomas nor Jordan Spieth tee it up for the Americans.
Sam Burns, Tony Finau, and Russell Henley were essentially locks. The toughest selection for Furyk to defend is Max Homa. While Max is undeniably a talented player, his form has been poor since mid-May. Homa finished T-70 at the Scottish Open in July, beating only two golfers who made the cut. More recently, Homa finished dead last at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. In his last nine starts, Homa has only one finish inside the top 30. Although Max has shown that he can play at an elite level, current form is still a crucial indicator of success. Betting on a player who is struggling through the bag as much as Homa right now is a risky endeavor, especially compared to alternatives like Justin Thomas, Akshay Bhatia, or Billy Horschel.
Supporters of Furyk’s decision-making will likely cite the points list, as Furyk picked golfers #7-#12 in points. For those interested in reading the fine print, here’s how the United States points system worked, directly from the Presidents Cup’s official site:
The American qualification system, via the Presidents Cup's official site
Could the points system be improved? Sure. Does it need to be perfect? Not really, unless it’s treated as gospel. However, it’s important to recognize the system’s limitations. For example, the system weights points earned at the 2024 Sentry Tournament back in January equally to points earned at the 2024 BMW Championship from two weeks ago. Golf played in August is much more predictive of form in September than golf played in January. Additionally, the points system doesn’t even include the Tour Championship, where Justin Thomas shot the seventh-best gross score and for which Homa didn’t even qualify.
This isn’t to say that the points system is worthless and should be scrapped, but being aware of its shortcomings is crucial when picking the best team. Homa (3,857 pts) earned 238 more points than Akshay Bhatia (3,619) in the standings, but 985 of Homa’s points were accumulated over 18 months ago, in early 2023. Form changes quite a bit in a year and a half.
Apologies if that explanation went too into the weeds. The point is that when selecting a struggling Homa over the other options, citing the points system isn’t a strong enough defense. I like my chances with Justin Thomas on the roster much more than with Homa, and that’s coming from someone who publicly advocated for leaving JT off the team last fall in Rome. JT’s game is in a much better position now than a year ago.
Team USA continues to do little to dispel the notion that the opposing side tends to make better decisions in team events.
The International Team
On the International side, Captain Mike Weir announced Min Woo Lee, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Si Woo Kim and a Canadian trio of Taylor Pendrith, Corey Conners, and Mackenzie Hughes as his captain’s picks. They join auto-qualifiers Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Byeong Hun An, Jason Day, Sungjae Im, and Tom Kim.
Captain @MWeirsy’s six picks for Montreal.
Les six choix du capitaine Weir pour l’édition à Montréal.#PresidentsCup | @IntlTeam pic.twitter.com/74WywSjaTr
— Presidents Cup (@PresidentsCup) September 3, 2024
Some are disappointed to see Canadian Nick Taylor, who has won twice on the PGA Tour since last June, left off the team. Taylor’s case wasn’t particularly strong, however. Excluding the Zurich Classic, a partner event, he hasn’t finished in the top 20 of a PGA Tour event since March. You can argue that he would elevate his performance in front of an energetic Canadian home crowd, but there is a difference between hoping for a slight boost and hoping for a dramatically better performance than most of what he’s shown most of this year, including when he missed the cut at the RBC Canadian Open in front of an energetic Canadian home crowd.
The lone “snub,” if you could consider it that, is Cameron Davis. The 29-year-old Aussie won the Rocket Mortgage at the end of June and most recently finished top 5 against a strong field at the BMW Championship. Davis has been inconsistent throughout 2024, but he’s playing well right now and would have provided the Internationals with some potential upside. But while you could argue for Davis over a couple names on the roster, his omission isn’t one to get outraged about.
From a course fit perspective, Royal Montreal won’t play into the hands of golfers with a particular skill set to the same degree as other recent venues. Some holes are power-friendly, many are tight and will punish off-line tee shots. But this golf course should not reward accuracy as much as a golf course like Le Golf National, nor reward power as much as a golf course like Whistling Straits.
A few weeks out from the opening tee shot, the United States is priced as a ~70% favorite to defeat the International Team.
This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
