The Presidents Cup does one thing much better than the Ryder Cup
The detailed process of selecting pairings and opponents gives the Presidents Cup a strategic layer that the Ryder Cup largely lacks, writes GOLF.com’s Sean Zak.
- — For the first time, Presidents Cup captains Geoff Ogilvy and Brandt Snedeker publicly worked through their pairing options in a dedicated selection session.
- For GOLF.com writer Sean Zak, who watched it unfold, the scene illustrated one thing the Presidents Cup does better than the Ryder Cup: it turns matchup selection into a genuine strategic process.
- Ogilvy and his assistants — Trevor Immelman and Camilo Villegas — deliberated for nearly a minute over whom to send against Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele.
- The International Team ultimately chose Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune.
MEDINAH, Ill. — For the first time, Presidents Cup captains Geoff Ogilvy and Brandt Snedeker publicly worked through their pairing options in a dedicated selection session. For GOLF.com writer Sean Zak, who watched it unfold, the scene illustrated one thing the Presidents Cup does better than the Ryder Cup: it turns matchup selection into a genuine strategic process.
Ogilvy and his assistants — Trevor Immelman and Camilo Villegas — deliberated for nearly a minute over whom to send against Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele. The International Team ultimately chose Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune. Tim Clark and Taylor Pendrith were also present but took little part in the discussion.
Zak argues that at the Presidents Cup, captains take turns trying to find a specific pairing for a specific opponent and do so as quickly as possible. At the Ryder Cup, he says, the emphasis is much more heavily placed on simply announcing the teams.
“It’s interesting,” Ogilvy said. “I’m sure Brandt and his team have [done the same]. We made some guesses based on practice-round groups. We’ve got some ideas about what we want to get matched up, and I’m sure Brandt has the same thing.
“These things unfold quite quickly. You just want to make sure you don’t break one of the rules you’ve set before you come in this room.”
The Americans made their choices much faster. After the International Team needed another roughly 40 seconds to decide who would play in the foursomes match, Snedeker took only a few seconds to name Justin Thomas and Jackson Koivun. “We’re not just throwing darts at the wall,” the captain said.
According to Zak, Snedeker prefers the Presidents Cup format to the Ryder Cup format for several reasons. One is that the captain can influence the order of matches through strategy. The captains, however, did not reveal all the details behind their calculations.
That is why there is added intrigue in holding Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay for the final match against Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim. That level of detail is largely absent from the Ryder Cup. It adds interest to the daily pairing selections and to the 12 singles matches determined on Saturday night. All that remains is to hope the contest is close enough by then for those strategic decisions to matter.
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