Medinah Country Club does not need help selling the possibility of a comeback. Golf has spent 14 years retelling one. I was on property for that. As an American, it was painful to watch. As a fan of the game, it was mesmerizing to watch unfold.
Europe arrived at the 2012 Ryder Cup singles trailing 10-6, won 8 1/2 of the 12 matches and left with a 14 1/2-13 1/2 victory. That Sunday will follow every player around Course No. 3 this week. It also creates a tempting story for an International Team facing an American roster with eight players inside the world top 11.
Geoff Ogilvy’s side cannot plan for another rescue. Its best chance is to keep one from becoming necessary.
The United States has won 10 consecutive Presidents Cups and owns a 13-1-1 record in the series. The lone International victory came in 1998. A tie followed in 2003. Since then, every edition has ended with the same flag beside the larger number.
Medinah can lend the week its old ghosts. It cannot close the talent gap, choose Ogilvy’s pairings or quiet 3,000 people around the first tee. The International Team has to handle those jobs before Sunday ever enters the conversation.
Royal Montreal Left a Warning
The first two sessions of the 2024 Presidents Cup produced one of the strangest scoreboards the event has seen. The Americans swept Thursday’s five four-ball matches. The International Team swept Friday’s five foursomes and erased the deficit in a day.
That response had emotion, noise and the kind of momentum television loves. It also brought the match back to even. The United States won the weekend 13 1/2-6 1/2 and finished the week with an 18 1/2-11 1/2 victory.
The lesson was expensive. Spending one full session repairing the previous one leaves no room for an ordinary Saturday. Royal Montreal looked alive after Friday, yet the International side still had to beat a better and deeper team over the final 20 matches.
Ogilvy gets the same opening format at Medinah. Brandt Snedeker chose four-ball for Thursday, which places five points on the board and gives the International Team its first opportunity to change the feel of the competition. A 3-2 start would be useful. A 2 1/2-2 1/2 split would travel just fine. Another 5-0 deficit would turn every question at the Friday podium into a discussion about survival.
The American Depth Is Hard to Hide
The current world ranking offers a blunt comparison. Eight Americans entered the week inside the top 11: Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Russell Henley, Chris Gotterup, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa. Si Woo Kim, at No. 14, is the only International player in the top 20.
Rankings do not play match play, but they do shape a captain’s options. Snedeker can separate stars, protect a rookie and rest an experienced player without making a pairing look thin. Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay each own 10-4-0 Presidents Cup records. Justin Thomas is 10-3-2, and Morikawa is 6-2-0.
The depth outside the team might be even more revealing. J.J. Spaun won the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on Sunday after being left off Snedeker’s roster. An American captain had to omit the man who arrived at Medinah week with one of golf’s freshest trophies.
Ogilvy has quality, experience and enough personality to make the Americans uncomfortable. He does not have the same margin for error. Adam Scott is making his 12th appearance. Hideki Matsuyama is back for a seventh, while Kim, Sungjae Im and Tom Kim have produced some of this team’s best golf and best theater in recent Cups. Four International players will make their event debuts, one more than the United States.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout is particularly easy to miss in a ranking comparison. He begins the week at No. 104, the lowest-ranked player on either roster, but has earned 3 1/2 points in five Presidents Cup matches. Ogilvy needs the player who has delivered in this format, not an apology for the number beside his name.
Ogilvy Needs Players Looking at Flags, Not Scoreboards
There will be holes Thursday when one International player is 15 feet away and his partner faces a shot he would never choose in stroke play. Hit it. Four-ball rewards the man willing to make six while trying to make three. If both players spend the afternoon protecting their scorecards, the Americans will have them exactly where they want them.
That makes Thursday the proper place for the energy of Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim. It also gives Ogilvy room to place steadier players around aggression. Matsuyama, Scott and Im understand how quickly these sessions turn. Corey Conners has struggled to a 2-7-0 Presidents Cup record, yet his controlled ball-striking can still have value beside a partner willing to chase flags.
Forget whether every combination makes sense Wednesday night. Ogilvy needs balls on the green, birdie putts with a chance and enough International blue on Medinah’s scoreboards to quiet the place for a few minutes.
Medinah’s first tee will seat as many as 3,000 spectators. The tournament has added wristband technology so fans can secure a seat, leave the grandstand and return. That setup should keep the arena full long before the opening shots.
Medinah will be loud. Ogilvy’s job is to make the American crowd nervous. A couple of early International wins would do it. Fans would spend less time reacting to every tee shot and more time searching the scoreboard for the next red number.
The Event Has Something at Stake Too
The Presidents Cup can point to a worldwide audience, a full first tee and an International roster representing seven countries. Its competitive history remains difficult to defend. Ten straight American victories have trained viewers to expect the same ending, even when individual matches are excellent.
A competitive Sunday would help more than another week of compliments about the atmosphere. The International Team cannot change the eligibility rules or solve the event’s long-term competitive problem this week. It has 30 points available at Medinah and a first session built for volatility.
This American team deserves to be favored. Scheffler leads it, eight players sit inside the world top 11, and three captain’s picks have won 30 Presidents Cup matches among them. Pretending the sides are equal would weaken the preview.
Match play has never required equality. It requires one player to beat another over the holes in front of them, then do it again in the next match. That gives Ogilvy a path, although it is narrow and begins earlier than the old Medinah story might suggest.
By late Sunday, Course No. 3 may have another team-golf finish to store beside 2012. First, the International Team has to reach Friday without owing the week a rescue.
PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on RG.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.
