The Presidents Cup once again fell the way of the United States, as they saw off their International Team rivals at Royal Montreal Golf Club in the Sunday singles.
The omission of some in-form LIV Golf names could well have cost the International Team dearly, as they fell to another Presidents Cup defeat at the hands of their American rivals.
After a close battle across the opening three days, it was Team USA who edged away, winning six matches and halving three in the Sunday singles to win the event 18.5-11.5. It was a valiant effort from the Internationals, who despite being huge underdogs, kept themselves well in it heading into the final day.
This came after they were whitewashed 5-0 in the opening session on Thursday, but impressively gave the Americans a taste of their own medicine a day later, taking a clean sweep on Friday to level things up at 5-5.
A fiery Saturday then saw the USA take a 11-7 lead, before they proved too good a day later to get their hands on a 10th-straight Presidents Cup crown. Despite the valiant efforts of Mike Weir’s team, it was a case of what might of been for the Internationals, who had a number of big names missing.
With the Presidents Cup a PGA Tour -sanctioned event, all members of the LIV setup are banned from competing. Whilst this left out the likes of Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau on the US team, the snub appeared to hit the Internationals harder amid the depth of American talent on the PGA Tour.
Most notably the Internationals were without arguably one of their most in-form players in Joaquin Niemann. The Chilean became the man to catch on the LIV circuit, winning two of the first three 2024 events on the breakaway circuit, and in impressive fashion too.
His hot run of form saw him lead the league’s season-long standings for the large majority of the campaign, before he was chased down by eventual champion Jon Rahm, who finished his season first-second-first. Rahm pipped at the final event was Niemann in Chicago, as the leading pair took the Order of Merit race right down the wire.
And though he did not get an opportunity to contest for a one-year title, the Chilean has it in him to make Weir’s team if qualified. Another notable absence was that of Cam Smith, who had been decrying himself as arguably the best player outside the US and Europe in the last year or so.
Smith, the winner of the 2022 Open champion and the former world number two, became the key figure for the International side in the 2019 Presidents Cup held in Australia. This analyst is expected to perform the same talisman role in the coming years but his transfer to LIV two years ago has seen the Internationls lose one their star men.
Experience is paramount on the Presidents Cup which would clearly have been brought by another former Open winner in Louis Oosthuizen. The South African had been a mainstay of the Internationals, featuring in four consecutive Presidents Cup before he was dumped in 2021 after joining the Saudis.