The Presidents Cup is this weekend!!! A lot of important news has occurred since our last preview that we thought would be important to share heading into the competition. We’ll also remind you of the format and give you some of our predictions.
News
Brooks Koepka Dropped Out
Pretty much everyone knew this was going to happen. He hasn’t been healthy and has already had to pull out of multiple tournaments this year. He was replaced by Rickie Fowler. I think this is okay… only sad part is not getting to see the Koepka / DJ pairing but please get healthy Brooks. Major season is only a few months away!
Jason Day Dropped Out
Jason Day dropped out of the tournament and was replaced by Ben An. People are not happy with Day, Aussies in particular. This is far from the first time Day has shown a lack of Aussie pride, often failing to come back to Australia to play in their Open and other significant events. While he pulled out due to back issues, many are questioning the severity of these problems or perhaps inquiring as to why he doesn’t seem to be making the effort to even go down to Australia to support the team. Realistically, it’s probably because a 16 hour flight definitely would not be good for a hurt back. I find this to be an interesting narrative, especially since Day has been out of the spotlight since the Masters, having had a pretty mediocre 2019.
Patrick Reed Cheated Again
This past weekend at the Hero World Challenge, Patrick Reed was caught cheating; attempting to improve his lie in a bunker by taking the club back and dragging the sand that was in his way so he had a better lie. He did this twice. He was only penalized 2 strokes and funnily enough, he lost the tournament by 2 strokes. There are so many issues with Reed. To say he’s a locker room nightmare is an understatement. Just yesterday in Australia as the team was practicing, Justin Thomas poked fun at Reed by dragging the sand back.
I’m not sure how much JT was kidding, but this is not the first time Reed has stirred up trouble. At the Ryder Cup last year, he made a huge stink about not playing with Speith and caused some real disarray on the U.S. team. If this were the Ryder Cup, I’d be actually annoyed at Tiger for keeping him on the team, but since its the Presidents Cup and the US is obviously going to win, I guess there isn’t that much harm Reed can do. The PGA Tour should’ve suspended him and taken this much more seriously; I don’t know what motivation they have to protect him as it’s not like he has a squeaky clean reputation in the first place. I find it to be very disappointing; since the Tour didn’t take any action, Tiger should have. Reed denies it but he’s so clearly full of it.
Adam Scott is Nervous Home-Field Advantage Won’t Help
Adam Scott came out saying he was nervous that the crowds weren’t going to be on the International team’s side. Unfortunately for them, the golf world is obsessed with Tiger Woods. Scott basically was pleading to his fellow Aussies not to cheer on the American team, and specifically Woods, so that the Internationals would have the edge of home field advantage. Realistically, the Internationals need all the help they can get so I understand this but it’s still kind of embarrassing. The best thing that could’ve happened to them is Reed getting caught for cheating. Many have said this will be “ammo” in the upcoming tournament with people (hopefully) mercilessly taunting Reed and maybe other Americans for Reed’s misdeeds. Multiple players, including Australia’s Cam Smith, have come out and made clear they have no sympathy for cheaters and that Reed’s behavior was unacceptable. Props to them.
Predictions / Hopes
Winner
This will be short. US by a million and it won’t be close. I’m predicting 20-10.
Pairings
Here’s who I’m hoping is paired together at some point for USA: JT & Rickie (the best friends), Bryson & Reed (the bad boys of golf), Tiger & DJ (best in the world), X & Finau (the two who are so close but haven’t gotten that major yet), Webb & Kuchar (veterans with not great reputations), Woodland & Cantlay (because they don’t really fit with anyone else)
Here’s who I’m hoping is paired together at some point for International:
While I have fewer opinions about international pairings, it could be cool to see two of the three Australians paired together (Leishman, Smith, and Scott). There’s the possibility of an all Korean pairing in An and Sungjae Im, two young Latin players together in Joaquin Niemann and Abraham Ancer, and a potential pairing of Louis Oosthuizen and Hideki Matsuyama, two of the best ball strikers in the world.
Match Ups
There aren’t too many I’m super anticipating besides a few:
Adam & Tiger: Gotta pit the two OGs on their respective teams against each other. Especially after Adam came out asking people to root for him over Tiger. I think it’d be really entertaining and be a nice reminder of old times.
Cam Smith & Reed: Now that Smith came out talking so much shit about Reed, it would be epic to watch Smith kick Reed’s ass.
Reminder of Format & How to Watch
The Presidents Cup is being held in Australia at Royal Melbourne. They are 11 hours ahead of us, which can be confusing so I broke it down for you below.
For a brief refresher on format: Day 1: 5 foursomes; Day 2: 5 fourballs; Day 3: 4 foursomes in the morning and 4 fourballs in the afternoon; Day 4: 12 singles matches. A total of 30 points are up for grabs and to win, a team must win more than 15.5 points. Each round is in the match-play format, meaning that players are allowed to concede holes if they know they are going to lose because each hole is only worth one point, and for ties, no one gets the point (versus stroke-play where you can go down by multiple strokes if you have a bad hole). For those of you unfamiliar with the terms “foursome” and “fourball”, “foursome” refers to alternate shot style of play whereas each team of two alternates, only hitting one ball; “fourball” alternatively, is more colloquially called “better ball” where each player gets to play his own ball and then the best score of the two is taken.
Wednesday (12/10) – Day 1: Fourballs (better ball)
Airing from 5:30pm to Midnight EST. Watch on PGA Tour Live, Golf Channel, NBC Sports Gold.
Thursday (12/11) – Day 2: Foursomes (alternate shot)
Airing from 7pm to Midnight EST. Watch on PGA Tour Live, Golf Channel, NBC Sports Gold.
Friday (12/12) – Day 3: Fourballs & Foursomes
Airing 3pm to 2am EST. Watch on PGA Tour Live, Golf Channel, NBC Sports Gold.
Saturday (12/13) – Day 4: Singles
Airing from 6pm to Midnight EST. Watch on PGA Tour Live, Golf Channel, NBC Sports Gold.
Everyone enjoy! Bet the house on USA and have some fun with other prop bets (Tiger to go undefeated is currently 50-1… not bad odds). We’ll be back after the fact with a recap. Hopefully there’s some exciting events to report on.
