The U.S. team captured the Presidents Cup once more, taking down the International team 17½ to 12½ at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Sunday. It was the Americans’ ninth straight victory and twelfth in 14 editions of the occasion.
Over 4 days, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas emerged as the face of American team golf, now that Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed are competing on the LIV Golf circuit. South Korea’s Tom Kim turned a family title, and the International team confirmed a number of coronary heart in competing higher than anticipated.
Here are 5 issues we realized this week at Quail Hollow:
These guys like one another
Everyone wants somebody to like them like JT loves Jordan, and vice versa.
There’s no query the International team has inherent hurdles the Americans do not must take care of, beginning with language limitations, cultural variations and unfamiliarity with one another.
International team captain Trevor Immelman wasn’t exaggerating (that a lot) when he known as this U.S. team the best ever assembled. The 12-man U.S. squad included 5 of the prime 10 gamers in the Official World Golf Ranking. Each of them was in the prime 25.
And when U.S. team captain Davis Love III can roll out the tandems of Thomas-Spieth and Xander Schauffele-Patrick Cantlay every session, it is like having Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in a five-game collection.
Spieth and Thomas, who’ve recognized one another since they have been children, went 4-0 in foursomes and four-ball matches. Cantlay and Schauffele, who’re pals, each hail from California and received the PGA Tour team occasion in New Orleans this previous season, went 2-1. The gamers went a mixed 3-1 in singles.
“It’s really fun, right?” Spieth stated earlier this week. “He’s my best friend in the whole world. We’ve played a lot of golf together. We’ve played a lot of golf against each other. Now we’ve played quite a bit with each other. There’s nothing more fun than these team events, playing alongside JT.”
When it appeared like the Presidents Cup would possibly flip into one other rout on Friday, considered one of the most fun issues to observe was Spieth and Thomas feeding off one another, fist bumping, chest bumping and screaming at one another alongside the means.
“Having the opportunity to not only win a point for your team but win a point with one of your best friends, it’s just one of those things,” Thomas stated. “We know each other’s games. We know how to feed off each other. We know how to help each other. We know how to stay out of each other’s way.”
And that is what makes the core of U.S. stars so harmful in team occasions going ahead. LIV Golf may need really finished the Americans a favor by luring away Reed, who was popularly referred to as “Captain America” by followers however wasn’t so common in the team locker room. Reed infamously complained of captain Jim Furyk’s “buddy system” in selecting pairings at the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris, which the Americans misplaced, 17½ to 10½.
The 12 gamers who competed for the U.S. this week genuinely appeared to love one another. There wasn’t an elephant in the room due to Bryson DeChambeau’s ongoing beef with Brooks Koepka, or as a result of Reed was sad about having to play with Tiger Woods as a substitute of Spieth.
A couple of instances this previous week, Presidents Cup rookie Max Homa, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, talked about that he wasn’t notably near anybody else on the U.S. team. But when Homa stated it once more throughout a information convention after Sunday’s victory, Sam Burns quipped, “Love you, Max.”
“Love you, Sam,” Homa replied.
“Sam’s a perfect example of somebody I’ve always gotten along with great and somebody I was looking forward to getting to spend real time with,” Homa stated.
Tom Kim is a famous person
The South Korean phenom’s title is Joohyung Kim, however he prefers Tom, a childhood nickname given to him due to his fondness for Thomas the Tank Engine. These days the 20-year-old has as a lot steam constructing as his namesake.
After successful the Wyndham Championship for his first PGA Tour victory a month in the past, Kim’s professional debut in a team occasion was a coming-out get together. He was the youngest participant on both team and the third youngest to ever compete in the Presidents Cup, behind solely Ryo Ishikawa and Jordan Spieth.
Kim went 2-3 in matches this week, and he was the pulse of the International Team and a crowd favourite at Quail Hollow Club due to his exuberant celebrations. On Sunday, Kim confirmed up at the first tee carrying sun shades and egging the crowd to cheer. He was a rock star.
Tom Kim has arrived 😎 @JoohyungKim0621 is able to roll @IntlTeam. pic.twitter.com/Zl9gI8avBH
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) September 25, 2022
After shedding his first two matches, Kim and his companions no less than gave the International Team a glimmer of hope on Saturday.
In the Saturday morning foursomes, Kim paired with South Korea’s Ok.H. Lee to take down world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns. That afternoon, Kim and Si Woo Kim shocked the seemingly unbeatable tandem of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele in four-ball competitors. Kim had an eagle on the par-4 eleventh gap and then made a 10-footer for birdie on the 18th to defeat Cantlay and Schauffele.
“I think the sky’s the limit,” stated Kim’s caddie, Joe Skovron, who was on Rickie Fowler’s bag till lately. “When you’re 20 years old and you’ve already won as much as he has around the world and to respond in this environment like he did, you know, and he seems to have a work ethic to go with it and a plan. “
Homa is not dangerous, both
It’s tough to think about that not way back Homa did not have a lot confidence in his recreation. He was considered one of the funniest professional golfers on Twitter (and nonetheless is), however he did not have a lot to point out for his work when it comes to outcomes. At the finish of the 2020 season, he was seventieth in the FedEx Cup standings.
Since February 2021, nonetheless, Homa has received 4 instances on tour. He received the Genesis Invitational in 2021, the Fortinet Championship and Wells Fargo Championship this previous season and then defended his Fortinet Championship title in Napa, California, final week. He did not arrive in Charlotte for his Presidents Cup debut till early Monday morning.
Homa, 31, delivered a signature second of the Presidents Cup on Friday. Playing with Billy Horschel, their match towards Canada’s Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners was tied after 16 holes. Homa made a 12-foot birdie putt on the seventeenth gap to go 1 up. Then, after Pendrith made a clutch 15-footer for birdie on the 18th, Homa made one other 12-footer to win the match.
After defeating Tom Kim on Sunday, Homa improved to 4-0 in his Presidents Cup debut. He is just the fourth Presidents Cup rookie to go 4-0-0 or higher in his debut.
“I’ve said it a million times, but last year, at Kiawah [Island], doing the fitting for the Ryder Cup, knowing I didn’t really have much of a chance anymore was tough,” Homa stated. “Looking at yourself in the mirror and all the USA gear, it was hard. But I’ve got a thing seared into my brain, and my main focus this season was to make this team, to play with these guys.
“Loads went into that. And to be right here was one factor, and then to return out and play some nice golf was one other. And this week has been past particular, validating, significant, all of the above. It meant loads.”
The PGA Tour needs more superstars, especially after so many big names like Dustin Johnson, DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and others defected to LIV Golf. The tour should embrace Homa’s personality more than ever before.
The International team is getting closer
Despite losing for the ninth consecutive time and the 12th time in 14 Presidents Cups, International team captain Trevor Immelman believes his squad is getting closer to winning. The International team was a massive underdog this week, especially after Smith, the No. 3 player in the world, Marc Leishman, Abraham Ancer, Louis Oosthuizen and Joaquin Niemann left for LIV Golf.
While Thomas and Spieth and Burns and Scheffler have been longtime friends, and many of the U.S. players live near each other in Florida and Texas, the International team’s players are scattered around the globe, making their dynamic different.
Immelman insists his team has made great progress in addressing the hurdles it faces. He credits Ernie Els with starting the transformation before the previous Presidents Cup in Australia in 2019. Els introduced the International team’s shield, which is on the players’ uniforms, golf bags and hats. They were selling merchandise with the shield at Quail Hollow this week.
While others have suggested that dramatic changes are needed to the Presidents Cup, from bringing in women golfers to allowing LIV Golf players to compete, Immelman thinks his team will continue to improve.
“We have a system that we like and a plan and a method, and it feels prefer to me, you already know, this was an vital week for us simply to simply lay a pair extra bricks on this home that we’re attempting to construct,” Immelman said. “We’re right here for the future on this occasion. We’re going to win this occasion. So we’ll maintain constructing. We’ll maintain preventing. At some level, we will win.”
Love also doesn’t believe the format should be changed.
“There wasn’t any discuss from both of our groups, Trevor’s or ours, about altering the format,” Love said. “We’re having a number of enjoyable, and we adore it, and our team seems ahead to next 12 months in Italy and then the next 12 months in Canada.”
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan also believes the International team is headed on the right path.
“Two of the last three were extremely competitive,” Monahan advised ESPN this week. “I think what Ernie and Trevor have started here in terms of building a team and building a culture, having been kind of inside that and understand that and seeing that evolve and being close to it, they’re building something that is sustainable and really special and aspirational. Every player on that International squad wants to be on that team, desperately.”
The next Presidents Cup is scheduled at Royal Montreal Golf Club on Sept. 24-29, 2024.
What about the 2023 Ryder Cup?
If the Americans’ 19-9 victory over Europe in the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits wasn’t sufficient proof, the U.S. team’s dominance at Quail Hollow was additional proof of simply how good and deep this roster is.
The next huge team occasion is the 2023 Ryder Cup, which is scheduled for Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Marco Simone Golf Club exterior Rome, Italy.
As lengthy as they’re wholesome, as many as 10 gamers is perhaps again on that U.S. roster. And remember that Will Zalatoris, the No. 8 participant in the world, would have been on the Presidents Cup team if not for a again harm. It appears unlikely that Kevin Kisner and maybe Billy Horschel will probably be again, though they may play themselves again into rivalry for a roster spot.
The European team will probably be led by Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, the No. 2 participant in the world, and Spain’s Jon Rahm, who’s No. 6. After being walloped in Wisconsin, the European team most likely wanted a face raise and transfusion of vitality. It’ll get one after Ryder Cup veterans Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia joined LIV Golf.
The prime of the European roster is fairly robust. U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Norway’s Viktor Hovland and Ireland’s Shane Lowry are robust. England’s Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood are able to taking part in nice golf. Thomas Pieters, Sepp Straka and Seamus Power are emerging as constant gamers. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi and Denmark’s Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard are younger however proficient.
The problem for the American team will probably be successful a Ryder Cup on overseas soil, which it hasn’t finished since 1993.
“I think that winning at home is special in its own way, and there’s nothing that beats it,” Spieth stated. “But going over there on the road and winning would be incredibly special next year, and I really hope I’m a part of the team.
“And the form of team rooms that I’ve talked about that we have had the previous couple of years, it’ll keep that means, and I’m very assured in our capability to go over there and win. You may inform me the final time it occurred over there, however no one right here has any scar tissue. Everybody on this panel would very a lot embrace what that appears like next 12 months.”
