In summary

  • Injury forced Jason Day out of the final 12-man International team, with Geoff Ogilvy naming six captain's picks including four event rookies.
  • Brandt Snedeker completed the USA team by selecting 21-year-old Jackson Koivun, the second-youngest player in history, as his 12th pick.
  • Snedeker opted to open the four-day event with fourballs rather than foursomes, a choice Ogilvy said he expected.

Injury cost Jason Day a spot in the final 12-man Presidents Cup team confirmed by International team captain Geoff Ogilvy who will try to end the USA’s domination with four event rookies.

Brandt Snedeker then closed out his team by choosing the second-youngest player in history for the USA, picking 21-year-old Jackson Koivun as his 12th and final selection, just four months after he left college to join the PGA Tour.

Day was 11th on the selection rankings but made it clear after missing the final two cuts of the season and failing to make the PGA Tour playoffs that he need to rest a body which was “beat up”.

Without Day, Ogilvy turned to veteran Canadian Corey Conners , Columbian Nico Echavarria, another Canadian, Nick Taylor, Korean Sungjae Im, rising Japanese star  Ryo Hisatsune and South African Christaan  Bezuidenhout as his six captain’s picks.

Echavarria, Taylor and Hisatsune will all be playing their first Presidents Cup, along with Open champion Ryan Fox who was among six automatic qualifiers, which included Adam Scott who will play the event for a record 12th time.

Bezuidenhout was the only pick from Ogilvy outside the top-14 ranked players, selected ahead of countrymen Casey Jarvis and Aldrich Potgieter who were above him.   

The International team has only won the event once, in 1998 at Royal Melbourne but with his team confirmed, Ogilvy was excited about what they could produce against an American outfit boasting seven of the world’s top-10 players.

“We've got a lot of experience. I mean, starting with Adam Scott's playing his 12th Presidents Cup, which is an incredible effort. Hideki's on his seventh, which is pretty impressive. All the way down to some rookies,” he said.

“We really were excited about the group of players we've got, the balance we've got on the team. There's some really sort of there's some natural pairings and there's going to be some new pairings I think going out there.

“I've been involved in a lot of these Presidents Cups. I don't think I've had 12 guys more enthusiastic and more energetic at this point of the tournament than we have this time.

“So we're very excited and looking forward to getting all that to Chicago and showing the rookies what it's like, and getting Adam and Hideki to show them show them the way.

“We're really happy with the collection of guys we have.”

Ogilvy hoped the strong connection between Hisatsune and Hideki Matsuyama, who was an automatic qualifier, would bring out the bets in both.

“They play a lot of Tuesdays together. They spend a lot of time. They practice a lot together,” he said.

“And I think they go out to dinner a lot too. So I think it's nice in these teams, in our team especially from so many different cultures, to have that sort of lineup in the team. That's going to be great.”

Snedeker will also carry three first-time Presidents Cup players, Chris Gotterup and Jacob Bridgeman joining Koivun as event rookies.

Koviun has only played 16 PGA Tour events, but showed all his talent with a stunning breakthrough win at the 3M Open, which created a groundswell for Presidents Cup selection.

“He's a guy without any holes in his game. That's very rare for a kid his age,” Snedeker said.

“You know, we all have holes in our games. I still have massive holes in my games at my age, but to see a kid his age not have any holes  … it's really impressive.

“This seems like a natural progression. Now he's got to go out there and prove it, which I have no doubt my mind will do.”

 

Snedeker’s other captains picks were team golf stalwarts Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay, who have vast Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup experience.

He overlooked Ben Grffin, who was eighth on the rankings, calling on team event veterans Thomas (11) and Cantlay (13), banking on their big-game experience.  

“His ability to play his best golf when it’s on the line .. to show up when all the chips are on the table, he’s the kind of guy you can’t have too much of,” Snedker said of Thomas.  

Schauffele and Cantlay have played a record nine times together at the Presidents Cup.

As hosts, Snedeker was allowed to choose the format and opted to start with fourballs, instead of foursomes, to open the four-day event, which didn’t surprise Ogilvy.

 “It's great to have most of your team playing on the first day,” he said.

“Foursomes is a is a very unique game. It's very different from four ball, and you don't feel like you can hit very many shots. So everyone gets hit all the shots on Thursday, and it's traditionally been the US's strongest one of the two.

“So yeah, that would have that would have been my guess

“It's nice to know when we're doing the pairings process over the next few weeks to sort of what's coming first. And now we do. We can put our heads down and work out a plan.”

 

THE TEAMS

INTERNATIONALS                                       U.S.A

  1. Si Woo Kim                                1.Scottie Scheffler
  2. Ryan Fox                                   2.Cameron Young
  3. Hideki Matsuyama                     3.Wyndham Clark
  4. Min Woo Lee                             4. Sam Burns
  5. Tom Kim                                    5. Russell Henley
  6. Adam Scott                               6. Collin Morikawa

CAPTAIN’S PICKS

  1. Corey Conners                          7. Chris Gotterup
  2. Nico Echavarria                         8. Xander Schauffele
  3. Nick Taylor                                9. Justin Thomas
  4. Sungjae Im                               10. Patrick Cantlay
  5. Ryo Hisatsune                          11. Jacob Bridgeman
  6. Christaan Bezuidenhout           12. Jackson Koivun