A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the Presidents Cup. But International team captain Trevor Immelman says he’s ready for whatever happens in the lead-up to this month’s event at Quail Hollow.
Spare a thought for Trevor Immelman. The South African winner of the 2008 Masters was named as International team captain for the biennial Presidents Cup in early April 2020. At the time, the world was still learning about COVID-19 and the PGA Tour was on what turned out to be a 90-day hiatus. Immelman probably thought a global pandemic would be the largest hurdle he would face – not to mention the hurdle of trying to assemble an International team capable of toppling the Americans for just the second time in the event’s 28-year history.
Then the Ryder Cup was rescheduled from 2020 to 2021, when the Presidents Cup was supposed to happen at Quail Hollow. And for good measure, a cashed-up rival golf tour called LIV Golf then got off the ground and cast doubt over which star golfers would be able to compete for the International team at the postponed 2022 Presidents Cup.
“It’s been pretty stressful, I’m not gonna lie,” Immelman tells Australian Golf Digest through an exhausted laugh. “It’s been stressful for a lot of people right now with the uncertainty and the division in the professional game. I’ve been a busy man, for a number of reasons. I’ve got a ton of communication and conversations going on with players, caddies, agents and everybody involved.”
The International team is selected via a points standing that determines eight automatic qualifiers ahead of four captain’s picks. The problem for Immelman is, speculation has been rife that three of his top-four players – Australia’s Cameron Smith, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann – are being courted to sign with LIV Golf. That would see the trio, and anyone else who may sign with LIV Golf, banned from playing on the PGA Tour given the Florida-based organisation runs the Presidents Cup.
It is important to point out that, at the time of writing, it is pure speculation. But even speculation is enough to concern Immelman given Smith is the International team’s best hope of ending a string of eight consecutive Cup losses. Smith has been on a tear since the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, where he secured a satisfying Sunday singles win over Justin Thomas. The Americans still won with Tiger Woods as their playing captain, but Queenslander Smith went to another level individually. He won the 2020 Sony Open in Hawaii a month later, then teamed up with Marc Leishman to win the 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. This year has been a breakout for Smith, claiming the elite Tournament of Champions on Maui, the Players Championship and then the 150th Open at St Andrews. The 29-year-old is now ranked second in the world. On the International team standings, Smith leads with an average points index of 18.36 while Matsuyama is second with 8.22.
“We saw Cam’s performance at the 2019 Presidents Cup,” Immelman says. “The way he fit straight into the team as a rookie, the way he performed in front of his home crowd in Australia, the way he played on Sunday when he took down one of the best players in the world in Justin Thomas, and then subsequently how he’s played since 2019… he’s won the biggest tournaments in the world. He is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best players on the planet, and has been for more than a year. He’s one of those guys we look at for leadership. You look at our qualification right now. I mean, Cam is leading our points list by more than double what second place is.”
Adding more complexity to the discord in professional golf, and therefore the Presidents Cup, is an antitrust lawsuit between 11 LIV golfers and the PGA Tour. The 11 golfers are challenging their respective suspensions by the PGA Tour for joining the Saudi Arabia-funded rival tour. Of those 11 golfers, three players – including Australia’s Matt Jones – were seeking a temporary restraining order to play in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs but their hearing on August 9 was ultimately unsuccessful. If there is a stay placed on the bans of those 11 players until the lawsuit is resolved, it could allow LIV golf recruits to play in the Presidents Cup, or at least those who automatically qualify. For instance, Mexican duo Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz would probably have qualified for the International team had they not gone across to LIV Golf.
“We’ve had two guys that in all likelihood would have been on the team but who joined the other tour,” Immelman says. “That’s absolutely made things tricky because the Presidents Cup is a franchise owned by the PGA Tour. The International team is a franchise that is still owned and operated by the PGA Tour and we fall under the PGA Tour’s rules and regulations and we will abide by those rules and regulations. I’m a man of my word and a loyal guy.”
There is also speculation that some golfers may announce they have signed with LIV Golf after the season-ending Tour Championship in late August.
“We’re still in a position where there could be a few other [player] losses, even though we’re getting so close to tournament time,” Immelman says. “The preparations are tough. But I am preparing for any type of outcome. As a team we have to be nimble and adjust for any changes to put the strongest team possible out there at Quail Hollow.”
‘We owe him one’
One player Immelman is hoping will be at Quail Hollow this month is Adam Scott, who at the time of writing is sixth in the team standings. The Australian great has been linked to a move to LIV Golf, although that, like Smith, Matsuyama and Niemann, is just speculation for now. Scott has played on every International team since the 2003 Presidents Cup in South Africa, which ended in a tie. Scott was a part of the next eight losses. The 2013 Masters winner is aiming to make his 10th Presidents Cup appearance on the International team, which would extend his record for the team’s most caps by two over Vijay Singh and Ernie Els.
Immelman, a friend of the 42-year-old since the pair were teenagers competing in international amateur events, was impressed by Scott’s tie for 14th at the US Open and tie for 15th at The Open at St Andrews.
“There’s no doubt I’ve been leaning on him a lot,” Immelman says. “He’s playing quite well… top 15 in the last two Major championships of the year and, in my opinion, his game is actually good enough to win again. ‘Scotty’ is a huge part of our team and it’s going to be his 10th Cup. We’ve got our butts kicked for the most part. Scotty’s had a tie in 2003 but he’s lost every other time. We want to turn that around for him because he’s been a great teammate for us for a couple of decades. We owe him one.’
Aside from being a Major champion, former world No.1 and winner of 14 PGA Tour events, Scott is a fierce leader, Immelman says. During the past 19 years, he has become the spiritual heartbeat of the International team.
“There’s a real respect for him as a player and as a person,” he says. “The word you’d use to describe the way he’s conducted himself over the past 20-plus years as a professional is ‘classy’. He’s just a classy guy. He does everything the right way. Our guys really appreciate that and that comes from all generations of the International team. Whether that be older players like Ernie Els, Mike Weir, Geoff Ogilvy and even Vijay Singh in past teams, or younger guys now like Sungjae Im, there’s a large span of players that show a lot of respect to Adam Scott, and that’s a testament to him.”
Immelman’s pick conundrum
Should more players from outside America and Europe join LIV Golf and thus be removed from Presidents Cup eligibility, Immelman may have to go further down the standings for his four captain’s picks. The 42-year-old says he is fortunate that his role as an analyst for CBS TV allows him to spend time with potential International team members during PGA Tour events. He said he was eyeing the talent of players such as fellow South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout, South Korea’s Si Woo Kim, New Zealand’s Ryan Fox and Canadian duo Adam Hadwin and Mackenzie Hughes. His explanation for why Australia’s Lucas Herbert, 19th on the team standings, has potential for a captain’s pick is funny and true.
“Lucas just seems to be a guy that could get under an opponent’s skin in matchplay,” Immelman says with a laugh. “He’s got that Aussie fire or feistiness about him, which I really like and I think can be very valuable in 18-hole matchplay. Lucas won in Bermuda and I was really happy for him. He got the big win at the Irish Open as well last year. The other thing I really like about Lucas, if you dive into the numbers, is he’s No.1 in strokes gained: putting on the PGA Tour this season. Putting is extremely valuable in matchplay, where there is more stress on putts to win and halve holes.
“But there are a number of guys I’m looking at. I really have had a squad of 25 players to choose from. We’ve been on e-mail chains and chats and dinners. Emiliano Grillo has been playing well. Bezuidenhout is an extremely consistent player; the guy barely ever misses a cut if you look at his record over the past few years. Si Woo Kim is a massive talent with a high ceiling and the moment won’t be too big for him. Ryan Fox has been playing incredible golf on the DP World Tour. He hits it an absolute mile and you really need length at Quail Hollow.
“There’s also an exciting young player, Tom Kim (birth name Joohyung Kim), who is taking the professional game by storm this year. He just won the Wyndham Championship and locked up his PGA Tour card, as we know. But he’s also won in Asia this year (Singapore International) and he had some other incredible finishes on the PGA Tour even before his breakthrough win. There’s a lot of talent there for the International team.”
One thing is certain, Immelman promises. The 12 players who do travel to Charlotte in North Carolina to compete on the International team will be treated to a week they’ll never forget.
“Myself and my wife, Carminita, have put in a lot of effort and time into how we will make these players feel once they finally make the team and they roll into Charlotte,” he says. “We want them to feel that this is one of the greatest achievements they’ve had in the game so far and that this is the most fun they’ve had playing golf. We’ve put a lot of thought into gifts and gestures for them, their wives and their caddies. Hopefully it pays off and these guys walk away from that week thinking, Man, I never want to miss a Presidents Cup.”
The only question is whether the International team can repay Immelman by beating an American side that – despite losing to LIV Golf multiple Major champions such as Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka and other stars such as Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau – will feature names including world No.1 Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Jordan Spieth.
If the International team can win this year, it’d arguably be more impressive than the 1998 team that beat a star-studded American side at Royal Melbourne. With the challenges Immelman has faced since 2020, it would be one of the greatest coaching efforts in the history of team golf.
