MONTREAL (AP) — The Presidents Cup still has a long way to go before it can be declared a hopeless cause.
Yes, the Americans have a 12-1-1 advantage in the matches against an International team that only four years ago began to develop a true identity. They are going for their 10th straight win this week at Royal Montreal.
That’s still not even a record among such team competitions in golf. The United States won 13 in a row in the Curtis Cup and 12 straight in the Walker Cup.
Long ago, the Ryder Cup was equally lopsided, mainly due to Britain trying to rebuild after World War II. In the first 25 matches against Great Britain and Ireland (1927-1983), the Americans led 21-3-1.
So give the latest iteration of team matches some time. Because while the Presidents Cup has been relatively predictable over the last two decades, the competition hasn’t suffered.
Tiger Woods shed light on this when he made his Presidents Cup debut at Royal Melbourne in 1998. He had won 36 consecutive matches in the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur, a record that might be as untouchable as his 142 consecutive cuts made on the PGA Tour.
He was asked that week the difference between match play as an amateur and a professional.
“The field,” Woods replied.
The International team had no one in the top 10 of the world ranking and only two players in the top 20 for the 2019 matches at Royal Melbourne. The Americans countered with 10 players in the top 20. The Americans still had to stage a huge rally in singles on the final day to win.
Then there was South Korea in 2015 when the Presidents Cup was decided by two putts in one match — Chris Kirk made from 15 feet, Anirban Lahiri of India missed from 4 feet.
An argument can be made the Presidents Cup has been more competitive than the Ryder Cup. The last five editions of the Ryder Cup have been decided by five points or more. Not since Medinah in 2012 has the outcome seriously been in question on Sunday.
That’s not to suggest the Presidents Cup can ever match the Ryder Cup in heritage and hype, and probably not in passion. The Ryder Cup is between two tours, and even now as most Europeans are PGA Tour members and U.S. residents, there is a lot of pride and even more bragging rights.
Europe, which joined the Ryder Cup in 1979, also had Seve Ballesteros. The late Spaniard might be singularly responsible for the matches being what they are today. Players with charisma like Ballesteros are hard to find anywhere in the world.
The biggest obstacle is the PGA Tour owns the Presidents Cup — both teams — which is why no one who defected to Saudi-backed LIV Golf is allowed to play.
The tour created these matches in 1994 when the International stars (from everywhere but Europe) who ruled golf — Greg Norman, Nick Price, Vijay Singh and a 24-year-old South African stud named Ernie Els — had no cup to play.
The tour made up a gold trophy and designed an “International” flag.
Royal Melbourne in 2019 might be looked upon as turning point in the Presidents Cup. Els was the captain and determined to give the Internationals their own identity. So he created a new logo, a combination of shields and badges culled from history that represented unity and loyalty, friendship, strength and fight. The colors are black and gold.
Even then, the PGA Tour had to approve of the new logo. There’s still no getting around two teams with the same owner. Imagine if the Internationals win this week in Montreal. Where would they display the trophy?
But the competition is fine, and it only looks otherwise based on outcomes.
There have been plenty of tight matches. The 2003 tie in South Africa was the most famous, especially having Woods and Els in a sudden-death playoff for their entire teams. Two years later, Chris DiMarco made a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the final match to win for the Americans.
In the early days of the Presidents Cup, Fred Couples made a 35-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole of the final match that gave the Americans a one-point win. It also featured Couples at his best, grabbing the hat off the head of someone next to him and flinging it in the air.
Close, but no cup for the Internationals.
It’s worth considering this question: What if they had won in 1996 or 2005? What if Woods had not made a 15-foot par putt in the dark in South Africa in that playoff? What if Els as captain in 2019 had sent out Haotong Li as a sacrificial lamb against Woods, instead of Abraham Ancer, one of his best players that week?
Would it have mattered? Would the Presidents Cup be viewed any differently now?
The Presidents Cup is not in danger of becoming irrelevant if the Internationals don’t win this week. Another robust crowd is expected at Royal Montreal — Canadians go nuts about their golf, maybe not as much in Quebec as other provinces. Corporate sales make this a big money-maker for the PGA Tour. It’s not going anywhere.
In that respect, it’s ahead of the Ryder Cup. Sparse galleries were the norm for a Ryder Cup in America until the 1987 matches at Muirfield Village. The PGA of America lost money on the Ryder Cup through 1989.
It wasn’t until 1991 that NBC provided full television coverage, and only then because it had lost out on a Saturday afternoon baseball contract and needed programming, and NBC executive Jon Miller thought the Ryder Cup might work. Did it ever.
Even the Ryder Cup had growing pains.
The Presidents Cup has been around 30 years. It doesn’t stand up to the Ryder Cup in intensity and passion, and it probably never will.
But it’s doing fine, regardless of who wins.
