13 Comments

1. 

   Peter

   Oct 7, 2017 at 6:12 am

   I was at the 1998 Presidents Cup where the much vaunted USA team was beaten 20 1/2 to 11 1/2 at the next overseas (2019) venue, Royal Melbourne. The teams that year in World golf rankings order were;

   Tiger Woods (1). Ernie Els (5)
   Mark O’Meara (2). Nick Price (6)
   David Duval (3). Vijay Singh (9)
   Davis Love (4) Steve Elkington (16)
   Phil Michelson (10). Greg Norman (18)
   Fred Couples (11). Stuart Appleby (33)
   Jim Furyk (12). Carlos Franco (39)
   Justin Leonard 15). Shigeki Maruyama (43)
   Scott Hoch (20). Craig Parry (53)
   Mark Calcavechia (21). Joe Ozaki (55)
   Lee Janzen (23). Frank Nobilo (60)
   John Huston (29). Greg Turner (62)

   The most points won by a player that year was Shigeki Maruyama (5) followed by the Elk with 4. Best of the Americans was Couples with 2 1/2. The International team had a 9 point lead going into the singles!
   Why did a team so talented as the USA team get smashed? A tough unfamiliar golf course that they obviously took for granted! A strong ethic with great leadership from both within and outside of the International team (Peter Thomson, Greg Norman, Nick Price) resulted in a team that bonded well. Great local support from an enthusiastic but fair spectator army raised the standard of the Internationals to where the lesser players believed they could compete and win!

   If you want to make the Presidents Cup more competitive, play it away from the USA more often! International golf would benefit and the comp would be closer! Standard US PGA tour venues like this year’s are only going to widen the gap between the teams!

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2. 

   BD57

   Oct 6, 2017 at 8:45 pm

   starting point to restructure the President’s Cup, IMO – shorten the bench, lessen the points.

   There’s no “rule” that says it has to be 12 man teams; for the Internationals, going to 12 means they’re going to get hammered by lack of depth.

   (Of course, this year they would’ve gotten hammered no matter what).

   Cut the teams to 10, or even 8.

   If you wanted to play three four-balls and three foursomes the first two days, and then 8 singles the last day, you could, although the public would probably like to see everyone play every match.

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3. 

   Gorden

   Oct 5, 2017 at 10:08 am

   Ryder Cup good, Presidents Cup seems way to one sided. Want to really get some pressure on America add the Asian Women to the Solhiem Cup.

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4. 

   RMF

   Oct 5, 2017 at 9:11 am

   Ryder Cup Flag waving is something the Americans brought to the event, I think it was when they spent the best part of the last 3 decades getting spanked by Europe. They didn’t like it one bit

   Competition with an edge is good for the game, how many people on here don’t joke around on the course, before and after… 0% that’s what I thought.

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5. 

   bellisaurius

   Oct 5, 2017 at 6:23 am

   It’s a lot easier to be friendly and congenial when you’re up a couple points. The closer the competition, the harder the two sides are going to go at it.

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6. 

   Chris B

   Oct 4, 2017 at 12:48 pm

   Generally the Ryder Cup is played in good spirits but it clearly has boiled over. Kiawah was the worst that I have seen with balls being kicked out on to the fairway, Seve’s cough and the ball swapping disagreement. Brookline was really bad at the end, and I really didn’t like the bowing last time round from a couple of our guys.

   But, this event seems to take some guys to another level and the standard of the golf is usually beyond what you see during the regular season. maybe it needs that edge to it.

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7. 

   Rano

   Oct 4, 2017 at 4:52 am

   Other than when certain immature fans stoop unnecessarily low in their goading of opposition players, I don’t see the problem in the fact that the Ryder Cup has a bit of edge to it. It’s what makes the contest a sepectacle, and the reason why it attracts viewers who would ordinarily not sit and watch golf for hours.

   The President’s Cup on the other hand, is a damp squib and flawed from the start. The International Team is not a team. It’s a group of random players, from different countries, cultures, languages and tours thrown together for a few days. It’s not all bad though, it has at least generated quite a lot of money for charity.

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8. 

   NG

   Oct 4, 2017 at 1:23 am

   Clearly we don’t need the President’s Cup any more. All that time and money should be spent on helping disaster areas and not wasted on golf by the President

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   • 

     michael

     Oct 4, 2017 at 8:27 am

     wut

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9. 

   Greg V

   Oct 3, 2017 at 1:42 pm

   Good comment about the Ryder Cup. It all starts with the pregame pageantry, which is way over the top. Too much party, too much production. Really, military jets flying overhead?

   At some point the Rest of the World will have excellent golfers who may dominate US players – it could happen.

   I would like to see the Presidents Cup retired, and have a Ryder Cup continue with 3 teams – US, Europe, Rest of. If your team wins, you play the next year against the other team. YEs, a superior team could play every year for 5 or 6 years, but isn’t that what the US does currently?

   Of course, that will never happen because these things are made for TV. There would be little interest (ie, no sponsorship interest) in the US in the years that the Rest of played Europe.

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10. 

    boomroasted

    Oct 3, 2017 at 11:48 am

    You can’t really ask for chemistry on the international side. They don’t all speak English well, they probably don’t spend as much time together on tour, and it’s probably more motivating to play for YOUR country like the U.S, or at least Europe where there is a cultural root, rather than just being all grouped together from god knows where. I think they’re just less fired up than Europeans in general, but it’s not really their fault. They don’t even get home-field advantage in a true sense, it’s a foreign country for the majority of the internationals. Plus for now, the U.S. has way more talented golfers to choose from and gets to play and build chemistry every year so the internationals are at a disadvantage from the start.

    Hard to become a good golfer anywhere other than the U.S, parts of Europe and Australia, unless you’re rich or gifted or both, so the talent pool is going to be narrow to begin with for the internationals. Maybe in 10-20 years when Golf grows in Asia and beyond, we might see more competitive teams.

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11. 

    Chris Maddison

    Oct 3, 2017 at 11:41 am

    “That would be unthinkable in today’s competition.” — umm, what about Tiger giving Molinari the putt to win the RC outright 5 years ago?

    The RC is played with great sportsmanship over the last twenty years. Only the incidents at Brookline and Kiwah were over-the-top.

    It is what makes the RC so appealing, they play hard but they play fair. The perfect example of this was Rory and Paddy on the 8th green. This fist bump as they walked off was everything the RC is about.

    99.9% of the fans in 2015 were perfectly behaved. They got excited, they cheered and they booed which added to the atmosphere. The ‘bitterness’ you refer to is such a small minority it isn’t even worth talking about.

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    • 

      peeny

      Oct 3, 2017 at 2:16 pm

      Disagree – the bitterness is very much there and far more than a minority (at least when it is being played on US soil). I don’t understand the need for screaming with excitement when the opposition make a bad shot. A win at all costs mentality with spectatorship being flung out the window.

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