Feature story: Cracking the Presidents Cup code

Geoff Ogilvy knows it can be done; he’s adamant, even. First as a Presidents Cup player, then an assistant captain and for close to two years now in charge of the International team’s planning, Ogilvy has been trying to “crack the code” and end team USA’s dominance of the biennial event.

His planning time, from thinking about it once a month, then once a week, then all day every day, quickly whittled down to a matter of weeks ahead of the September showdown at Medinah Country Club in Chicago.

As it loomed ever closer, with newly minted Open Champion Ryan Fox storming into the International team for the first time after Korean star and Presidents Cup lover Tom Kim won the Scottish Open the week before, there was a growing sense of confidence in Ogilvy’s voice when he spoke to Golf Australia magazine from his US base.

Brandt Snedeker, put in charge of the dominant American outfit and given a similar timeframe to get ready, was preparing for a meticulously planned Ogilvy ambush.

With more than 20 potential members of his own team stirring for redemption after the Ryder Cup whipping at Bethpage Black in 2025, Snedeker sensed a real “urgency” in Ogilvy and the Internationals.

Speaking to Golf Australia magazine ahead of the 16th Presidents Cup, Snedeker believed the Internationals were harnessing a growing desire to end their losing streak, with momentum on their side.

“I think Geoff brings that urgency,” the USA captain said from North Carolina, just before teeing it up in the Wyndham Championship, balancing his duties as player and skipper.

“He realises this has been building for a while. They’ve gotten closer and closer and he feels like this is his opportunity to kind of push them across the line. And he has some great, young players who are playing great golf right now.

“He’s going to have a plan to shock the golf world. I know exactly what he’s going to bring to the table, and if there’s anybody can do it, Geoff can.

“I know he feels like this is the right time for them to kind of take that next step, and so our job is to be ready to go.”

When that idea of urgency - to end a losing streak which stretches back to the lone International team win in 1998 at Royal Melbourne, a period which has included some huge defeats, barely mustering a real challenge in some – is put to Ogilvy, he said it was probably the wrong word.

He said desire was more the prevailing mood, and he felt that growing in every interaction he had with his players; at dinners, during practice rounds, in chat groups with a new generation of International players, and some veteran stars, resolved in their singular aim.

The Presidents Cup hasn’t always, but does now sit high on the priority list for players from Australia, Asia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and South America, and it’s that unification of want which could propel them to success.

“The desire to win seems to be getting stronger and stronger  …  every single time it’s going up,” Ogilvy said.

“We know we’re going to get it done at some point, but that passion is talked about more often. Our guys, probably 20 years ago, didn’t. It wasn’t a cool event.

“But progressively, more and more it’s a regular point of conversation, like ‘we’ve got to do it next time. Let’s go’. It’s much more front of mind for guys.

“There’s so many intangibles in these things, but just getting 12 guys who are really passionate about winning the tournament is probably the most important ingredient, and we’re getting that more and more as time goes on.

“We’re going to crack the code sometime. Hopefully we crack the code this time.”

Geoff Ogilvy has gone from assistant to team captain. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

CRACKING THE CODE

Desire is just one element of an enigma wrapped in a riddle that is getting the best out of the International team.

Ogilvy has seen it up close seven times, all losing attempts, three times as a player and four times as an assistant captain, across nearly two decades.

Changing players, changing attitudes, culture clashes and language barriers all present challenges the USA gets to avoid for the most part, given the continued involvement of so many.

For so long the International team was made up of players from myriad tours, in Japan and Asia as well as those in the USA and Europe, coming together for a week or so beforehand, then expected to combine without issue.

Now though, with the golf world funnelling the best to the PGA Tour, that closeness allows for more regular bonding which produced the emotional connection on show at the last staging in Montreal.

Kim was the International team’s antagonist, taking on world No.1 Scottie Scheffler. Even the normally serene Si Woo Kim fired up, elements of excitement Ogilvy said were key pieces of the puzzle.

“It’s a unique tournament where you have individual athletes dropped into a team so it’s an adjustment period,” he said.

“That passion and desire is probably important, but there’s so many other aspects.

“These events have become so much more in depth and analysed. We spend a lot more time together working out who’s going to be good foursomes pairings, who’s going to be good four balls, who needs to play five rounds, four rounds, three rounds, what order do you go out in the singles, things like nutrition and fitness and the set up we have at the tournament.

“We also have always had the issue of bringing together different cultures. It’s a sort of mixed bag and to connect in seven days is a challenge, but that’s part of cracking the code for us as well, and we’ve done a much better job of that.

“I think it’s a holistic approach to these events now and I think you just have to nail all the details.”

Team Europe won the “miracle at Medinah” Ryder Cup in 2012. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

THE EUROPEAN LESSONS

Ogilvy watched on closely as the Europeans withstood not just the powerful home outfit, but the overly boisterous New York fans in the 2025 Ryder Cup, and saw the lessons in how to beat the Americans on home soil.

He reached out to European captain Luke Donald, to senior players like Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose and banked that knowledge for Medinah.

“They’re clearly amazing at what they do,” Ogilvy said.

“If you get any sort of insight out of Europe, it’s that they it’s a no stone unturned approach to how they can sort of maximize the performance of their team and we’re trying to do the same thing, really.”

The Americans were successful, again, in Montreal in 2024. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

TALENT V TENACITY

On paper the apparent gulf between the two teams seems stark. At the time of writing, there were nine Americans, from Scheffler at No.1 to JJ Spaun at No.15 on the world rankings before you hit the first International team player, Korean Si Woo Kim at 18.

There were 13 Americans in the world’s top 30 compared to just four internationals with Open champion Fox (23), Hideki Matsuyama(24) and Australian No.1 Min Woo Lee (28).

Depth is anything but an issue for Snedeker, who said he’d even look outside the rankings for in-form players, with five first-time winners on the PGA Tour this year giving him food for thought.

“The depth we have is fantastic, and then we have a bunch of young players who are pushing to get on these teams, we have some veterans who have been around who are pushing to get on this team," he said.

Ogilvy said while he acknowledged the rankings difference, he said that a clear caveat existed and that the paper gap was potentially not that significant on the course.

“You have to remember that the world rankings are based on 72-hole stroke play tournaments. When you play 18-hole match play, there’s a lot more to it than that,” he said.

“As Europe has proven in the Ryder Cup over the last 20, 25 years, sometimes they’re stronger on paper, sometimes they’re weaker, but they generally always are very strong when they get together and play this format.

“And I think, and we’ve seen it a lot in many other sports … it’s not necessarily the individuals, but it’s how they combine. It’s my job to combine these guys to even up that  ledger.”

Ogilvy is adamant he has some big-time players in his outfit this time, too; the clutch guys who could thrive in the match-play cauldron, including second-timer Min Woo Lee.

Australia’s highest-ranked player, the 28-year-old from Perth is of that generation who grew up watching International team losses, who has stated his desire for Presidents Cup success, an idea infecting those around him.

“He is great energy in the team room,” Ogilvy said

“He’s one of the best players in the world. He finished second where Tom [Kim] won in Scotland, so he’s sort of back in form, and he’s one of the first guys on the chat. We have a WhatsApp chat, he’s very active on that, and everybody loves him.

“And I think it’s the sort of event where he’ll thrive because he can have tendencies to show off a little bit. Generally, those are the guys who thrive in these situations; guys who are built for the big moments. He’s one of those guys.”

Fox also brings major championship-winning form to Medinah, making a Presidents Cup debut even Ogilvy said was overdue for a player who has won all around the world, but made a huge impact in the past 12 months.

“He was so close in 2022. I remember the conversations about do we pick him or not, and he was just a bit too far down, and it was similar last time,” he said.

“He’s built to be in a team, with his dad being an All Black, and he’s one of everyone’s favourite guys in the locker room.

“He’s clearly in great form and confident and you can put him up against anybody.

“I was mostly happy that he just won a major, but to see that he’d sort of locked himself up in the team and he was coming with us I was pretty pumped about.”

Then there’s Adam Scott, no lock for a record 12th start, but a more than likely selection.

The all-time leading points scorer for the International team, he’s played with and now under Ogilvy, who said the 46-year-old not only deserved to taste victory, but boasted some crucial ingredients to make it happen.

“That’s a long time to come up short,” he said.

“His desire is going up and up every time.”

Korean star Tom Kim was intense in 2024 at Royal Montreal. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

THE DOMINATION

For Ogilvy and his players, there’s no shying away from the losing streak, having been front and centre for so many losses.

However, according to Snedeker, the past means nothing. His team could have up to six changes from the 2024 victory, maybe a couple of first-timers, too. There will also likely be at least six members of that beaten Ryder Cup outfit from last year seeking some redemption.

Snedeker, though said everyone starts on zero. “This is going to be a new team,” he said.

“They’ve accomplished nothing as a group, so we can’t go in there thinking just because we’ve had success in the past that we’re going to have it again. That’s exactly how you can stub your toe.

“So you have to go into the mindset of this team’s 0 and 0. Geoff’s going to be ready to play. They’re going to be hungry.  Even though the record might look what it is, these last two or three Cups I’ve been a part of, it’s been very close.

“There have been times on Saturday afternoon, Friday nights, Saturday mornings where we’ve been super-stressed because it’s not going the way we thought it would go.

“We know the internationals have nothing to lose. They’re coming. It’s not going to be an easy one, for sure.”

Medinah’s course No.3 has undergone some huge changes. (PHOTO: PGA Tour)

THE COURSE

Brandt Snedeker was on the losing end of the “Miracle at Medinah” when the European Ryder Cup team stormed over the top of the locals, winning eight of the 12 Sunday singles matches to turn a 10-6 points deficit into one of the greatest sporting comebacks in history.

Snedeker referred to it as “one of probably the lowest points of my career”, although four years later he hit a high point as a Ryder Cup winner at Hazeltine.

Course number three at Medinah, roughly 40kms outside Chicago, holds no ghosts for the USA captain, however, because in 2026 it’s a completely different layout. But the vast changes made through 2023 and 2024, to be ready for the Presidents Cup, provide another layer of intrigue to the contest. The changes were completed by Australian firm OCM, of which the ‘O’ stands for Ogilvy.

The International team captain was part of the redesign which included clearing trees, removing elevated tees, increasing bunker numbers from 70 to 100, widening fairways and most significantly, re-routing and adjusting the closing six holes.

A new 13th plays alongside Lake Kadijah, the 14th has been shortened, the old 15th removed and the par-three 17th has been converted into a short, par-four 16th. There’s a new par-three 17th that plays back across the lake, and the 18th that plays up the original corridor alongside the first hole.   Water is now more in play across the course, and a reintroduced boundary fence demands more precision at holes five, six and seven.

The intimate knowledge Ogilvy has of the new Medinah challenge, the tricks and tips he can offer to achieve the best possible shot result, all scream “advantage internationals”. It is something Snedeker remains conscious of as a factor, but only to a point.

“He knows that he knows a lot more about that golf course than we know, that’s for sure,” he said.

“Professionals are used to doing this every week. We’re used to playing new golf courses. Whatever advantage he has, and he will have one, when we show up, hopefully we’ll be engaged by the time we put the tee in the ground on Thursday morning.

“Geoff probably has an idea of how the golf course should be played … there are certain things that he intended to be important. But as I’ve told Geoff and joked with him, the lines these guys take off tees are probably not the lines he intended when he built the golf course. There are some guys here that can hit the ball so far that they play golf courses differently than him and I do.

“But I think Geoff did a great job. So hopefully we can kind of negate that home course challenge, that home course knowledge he has from the design aspect.”

Ogilvy said any advantage could disappear after 24 or 48 hours of the Americans seeing the course, aided by Snedeker’s scouting in the lead up. His excitement lay not in handing out handy hints to his players, which he said he would do, but in seeing the world’s best players take to the changes he was incredibly proud of.

“I’m not hitting any shots, so I can’t use any of the knowledge that I have, but I think there’s an advantage before the tournament right now because I have a pretty, obviously, an intimate knowledge of the course,” he said.

“But I think these guys, professional golfers, if they’re anything, they’re very, very good at learning a golf course really quickly. And I think by the time we get to Thursday, I think any sort of advantage that’s there right now would be sort of negated.

“Both of us have analytics stats teams who will pull the golf course apart and work out the path of least resistance around the course and where success is and where failure is, so I think that’s going to be where it starts off with an advantage.

“It’s going to be fun to see 24 of the best players in the world play a golf course that we renovated; that’s going to be really exciting to me, from an architectural perspective, but by the time the balls are in the air, I think the advantage will be gone.”

A young Rory McIlroy celebrates at Medinah in 2012. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

THE CROWDS

The fallout from the boorish crowd behaviour at the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black lingered for weeks after the European team’s victory. American golf officials were required to apologise after standard early booing turned to loud heckling during back swings, then homophobic slurs and insults aimed at players’ wives.

A vile chant taunting Rory McIlroy was started in the crowd at the first tee, then repeated into a microphone by the master of ceremonies, a comedian.

McIlroy’s wife, Erica was hit with a beer cup from the crowd and the home team did little to quell the overall descent into vulgarity, which was called out as “despicable” by former European captain Tony Jacklin.

Team golf brings groups together with a single cause, and by losing that Ryder Cup encounter, a second-straight loss for Team USA, the added pressure to get a victory on home soil could provide more fuel for the locals to get loud.

Ogilvy, though, had no real concern of a repeat, and the potential for it to impact on his team’s play for one standout reason.

“There’s a lot of history to the Europeans and in the Ryder Cup that we haven’t quite established yet. There hasn’t probably been quite the animosity,” he said.

“Chicago and New York are different cities, so I think it’ll be different in that respect also. I think it’ll be clearly very one-sided …  I feel like it’ll be loud one way and quiet the other way, but I don’t think it’ll be aggressive.”

Snedeker said lessons learned in New York demanded attention be paid, and that no lines should be crossed.

But he also said curbing the crowd, keeping them too quiet, wasn’t something he’d be inclined to do given the possible advantage on offer to his team.

Like Ogilvy, he was confident there would be no ugly repeat of Bethpage, hopeful of a more appreciative crowd.

However, he still wanted it to be loud, and one-sided. “You know, I’m not going to do anything to quiet home fans,” Snedeker said. “But that being said, we want to be respectful. We want to make sure that you know they’re cheering the right way, cheering for us, not necessarily cheering against internationals, but still cheering for good shots,” he said.

“It’s nice to go places where people appreciate good golf and Chicago is a great sports town. I mean, they’re going to be there in droves, and it’s going to be our biggest buildout ever for a Presidents Cup. So we’re going to try to use that home course advantage.

“But we definitely don’t want to cross the line. It needs to be respectful and honour the traditions of the game, the traditions of the competition. It needs to be made sure they’re not getting interrupted, or they’re not getting yelled at to the point where it’s not fair and it’s not fun. It becomes a distraction for not only them, but for our team.

“We’re gonna do a good job with messaging with the fans throughout the week, kind of riding that line of like, hey, we want you to be loud and boisterous and be great fans, but this is supposed to be about sportsmanship.

“We’re not going to step on the other team and cause any kind of undue distractions.”

United States' Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

SO WHO WINS?

The history, the rankings, the bookmakers all point to another USA win. Both captains, however, painted a clear picture of a much closer contest, far from a foregone conclusion.

“The group is in a really good place. The boys are really motivated,” Ogilvy said.

“I think the form this time last year was a bit concerning. We’ve had a lot of guys play well this year. Ryan Fox just won the Open.

Si Woo Kim’s been great every week. Tom Kim just won a tournament. Adam Scott, he’s played well this year.

“The form is good. The chat group is active. We’ve had a few dinners this year. They’re all very, very excited about it. It feels really good.

“This is a really tough tournament to win, so it’s hard to have any expectations, but my expectations are sort of built around we’re going to have a great week and we’re going to give it a good crack and hopefully we can get there.”

Awaiting the Ogilvy-led ambush, Snedeker said an 11-th straight victory was anything but a fait accompli. “As I’ve said, this is a different team, and we’re gonna have some guys on here who have not been on teams before, and they’ve got to step up and write their own history and hit the shots they need to hit under pressure,” he said.

“This is not going to be an easy fight. This is going to be a tough one, just like they always are. It seems likely to come down to a few matches here or there, a few putts going your way or not. So our guys are going to have to show up ready to go.”

HOW IT WORKS

The Presidents Cup will be played from September 24-27 at Medinah Country Club,  Course No.3 in Chicago, Illinois.

TEAM SELECTION: Each team has 12 players, six automatic selections and six captains picks. The US team uses FedEx Cup points for automatic selections of players. The top six players after August 23 are locked in, with the final six selected by Snedeker following the 2026 BMW Championship. The International team, consisting of players from all countries outside of the USA and Europe, uses Official World Golf Ranking points for the six automatic qualifiers.

PLAYING FORMAT: The event takes place over four days (Thursday to Sunday) with 30 points up for grabs across 30 match-play contests.

The team which reaches 15.5 points first wins. If the tournament ends in a 15–15 tie, the teams share the trophy. That has only happened once in 15 editions, at Fancourt in 2003, the only time the tournament was played in South Africa.

Thursday features five matches off fourball (best ball) or foursomes (alternate shot). Friday features the opposite format.

On Saturday there are four foursomes matches in the morning and four fourball matches in the afternoon.

Across the first three days, not all players compete, with captains picking their preferred pairings the night before play.

Sunday features 12 singles matches involving every player from both teams to decide the winner.

Team USA has won the Presidents Cup 13 times, with the International team enjoying only a single victory, at Royal Melbourne in 1998.