Does the Presidents Cup need changing to stop Team USA’s dominance?

The United States maintained their Presidents Cup winning streak over the International Team, with the latest victory reigniting debate about whether change is needed in the biennial contest.

Brandt Snedeker’s side produced the largest final-day comeback in Presidents Cup history at Medinah, winning 9.5 of the 12 points on offer in the Sunday singles to close out a record-extending 11th consecutive victory.

A 17-13 winning margin doesn’t tell the full picture from a closer-than-expected contest, including a foursomes session sweep for the Internationals on Friday and them leading going into the final day for just the fourth time ever.

The harsh reality, however, is that the International Team fell short again after threatening a shock victory, extending their wait for a first win over the United States since 1998.

Geoff Ogilvy’s side were more than a match for the Americans over the first three days but were outclassed on Sunday, meaning Team USA have now won 14 of 16 Presidents Cups ever played.

“It was sort of on a knife’s edge all day,” Ogilvy said. “Some of those one downs that we had out there, if they’d flipped to one up, the numbers look really good and who knows what momentum can give.”

Could schedule changes boost the Internationals?

The Presidents Cup is a four-day event with 30 total matches, which is a day longer and two matches more than the format used for both the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup.

The disparity in strength of teams in the Presidents Cup is greater than in the two involving Europe, so could a tighter schedule of fewer matches be of benefit?

Playing foursomes and fourballs on both Friday and Saturday means fewer matches but more opportunities to bench weaker members of a team, plus puts less pressure on the marquee names to play in every session.

“They need to start the President’s Cup on Friday and reduce the number of points,” Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee insisted. “Reduce it to 24. If they’re playing for 28 in the Ryder Cup, why in the heck are they playing for 30 in the Presidents Cup when there’s a bigger separation between the talent?

“If it were just 24 points, you would only need 12 and a half to get to a victory. The first three Presidents Cups were started on a Friday and if you go back and combine the points from 1994, 1996 and 1998, they [Team USA and Internationals] were dead even after those three.

“There’s no point in it going four days, drawing it out. The longer you go out, the more the better players and the better team are going to come to the fore. That was evidenced very poignantly.”

Should LIV Golf players be allowed to play?

The Presidents Cup being a PGA Tour-owned event immediately makes LIV Golf League players ineligible, which has had a bigger impact on the International Team’s depth than it has on the United States.

The early years of the Presidents Cup saw the Internationals have former world No 1s Greg Norman, Nick Price, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh at their disposal, but their strength had already weakened before the emergence of LIV Golf.

Chilean Joaquin Niemann and 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith are two of the players no longer able to feature, with Lucas Herbert – who impressed this season – and International Team stalwart Louis Oosthuizen among the others who can’t be involved.

“Give the Internationals autonomy to choose who they want,” Chamblee added. “You’re telling me they wouldn’t have chosen some LIV players to be on this team?

“The PGA of America runs the Ryder Cup on the US side and the DP World Tour has their own set of rules, so it allows them to choose a Jon Rahm or – in the case of the US team – a Bryson DeChambeau.

“It certainly mattered to the European Ryder Cup team at Marco Simone [2023]. It would have mattered for this Presidents’ Cup team, which has been gutted by six of the players that made 2019 so competitive going off to LIV Golf.”

How about adding LPGA Tour stars to the team?

The idea of a mixed Presidents Cup has previously been suggested to make the contest more balanced, given five of the world’s top six in the women’s game – as of September 29 – would be eligible to represent an International side based on the current criteria.

“Maybe they [the PGA Tour] go into a partnership with the LPGA Tour to create something like that,” former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley recently told Sky Sports. “Whether they do it for the Presidents Cup is doubtful, because they’ve already said no to that situation evolving.

“They may open up a new pathway for it, you never know, but it does make a lot of sense to do that because then you would get two really good, balanced teams. If you add half of the ladies internationally combined with the men, you would have a pretty formidable team that would be very strong against the might of America.”

Any addition of female participation would offer its own challenges on the course in terms of tee positions and the formats used, along with schedule agreements and tour partnerships off it, but it’s something Min Woo Lee would be open to see happening in the future.

“It would be nice to have her [Minjee Lee, his sister] on the team and me on the team – think it would be very fun,” Lee said ahead of this year’s event. “It would make it interesting, for sure. Even just the best ball, like mixed best ball, mixed foursome would be unbelievable.”

Should the Presidents Cup go global more often?

The PGA Tour already offers an American-heavy schedule of events, so why not take their marquee team event elsewhere and show off their star players to a global audience?

Some 18 different nationalities have represented the Internationals at a Presidents Cup, including seven at Medinah, yet only four countries – outside the United States – have ever hosted the biennial contest.

South Africa, a nation with huge golfing history and one that produced huge crowds for a LIV Golf event earlier this year, hasn’t held the Presidents Cup since the historic 15-15 tie in 2003.

Australia, Canada and South Korea are the only other previous other host nations, with the Middle East, India, Japan and New Zealand all potential golfing markets for the Presidents Cup to explore.

Always playing the Presidents Cup outside of the United States would take the PGA Tour to new areas and could inspire a new generation of international stars. Plus, more away matches could also help Team USA’s bid to end a dismal Ryder Cup record on the road.

Could Europe help the International Team?

Europe have used a variety of different match play events to give players experience of playing in a team environment, but could one involving the Internationals be of benefit to both?

The now-defunct Seve Trophy and the current Hero Cup have been events where Great Britain and Ireland have faced Continental Europe, while the EurAsia Cup was a team competition previously played between Europe and Asia.

All three have given potential Ryder Cup players the chance to impress, with Ramsus Hojgaard featuring in the Hero Cup last January before making his Team Europe debut at Bethpage Black later that season.

While those team competitions haven’t typically included all of Europe’s marquee talent, a new competition would give the Internationals a bonus week together to experiment with different partnerships and prepare to face the United States.

The biggest challenge for his idea would be where it fits in the schedule, given the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup take place in alternate years. Would an early-season slot – like the Hero Cup uses – work ahead of the PGA Tour campaign?

How about a different team tournament?

Should the golfing calendar get in the way of Europe providing the Internationals with another team tournament, could they create their own biennial event for the non-Presidents Cup years?

Asia vs the rest of the world, outside of Europe and United States? A Northern Hemisphere vs Southern Hemisphere team contest? A nation vs nation competition to bring together possible future pairings? There’s plenty of fun to possibly be had.

We already have the Hanwha LifePlus International Crown on the LPGA Tour, a team tournament that sees different nations go head-to-head across multiple formats, but a similar event is currently lacking from the men’s schedule.

One could slot into the post-season during Ryder Cup years, which is not administered by the PGA Tour, giving them another team event to sell globally and be another way to allow the International players practice of competing in team golf.

The Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup have both continued to grow in stature within the sporting calendar. Another Presidents Cup defeat for the Internationals means the contest may need to evolve and make changes to improve its own status.

What’s next?

The United States will be back in action next September when they take on Team Europe in the Ryder Cup, held at Adare Manor in Ireland from September 17-19. The next Presidents Cup will be held in 2028 at Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia. Get latest Sky Sports deals or stream with no contract on NOW.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com