Words: Paul Prendergast
Photo: Mark Wilson – Golfplus Media.
| This week’s event, among other things, will mark the 30th anniversary of the launch of the bi-annual Presidents Cup matches between the United States and The Internationals with the U.S. being victorious in all but two. Even the Bledisloe Cup that has been rusted on to the All Blacks has changed hands more times in that timespan but, that’s a sob story for another day. The 2024 matches will for the second time be played at North America’s oldest golf club, Royal Montreal, who celebrated their own anniversary in 2023 – 150 years of continuous operation over three separate locations across the city. The formidable parkland layout has hosted five Canadian Opens and the 2007 Presidents Cup which went the way of the Americans 19.5 -14.5 but not before local fans took some consolidation from national hero and 2024 Internationals skipper Mike Weir’s final hole victory over Tiger Woods in the Singles matches. The club’s website charts many notable moments in their long history including an interesting aside that that this was the site of Woods’ first missed cut as a professional during the 1997 Canadian Open. Golf historians and YouTube frequenters will however always remember an event at Royal Montreal that is, curiously or otherwise, not detailed by the club in their most memorable chapters in history. The very same 2007 Presidents Cup marked the moment when what was known on the PGA TOUR as a series of theatrical on-course ‘Woodyisms’ – a variety of self-admonishing thigh slaps and body checks, guttural exhortations, and some mild club abuse – would be elevated to another stratosphere. Faced with a submerged ball in the pond below the steep bank to the left of the 14th fairway, the-then 43-year-old U.S. Cup debutante Woody Austin saw ‘opportunity’ where other mere mortals might have seen ‘common sense’. With his partner David Toms barely able to contain his mirth, Austin removed shoes and socks, rolled up his trousers and with an injudicious caddy’s encouragement ringing in his ears, took an almighty lash that achieved literally nothing from a pure golf perspective but a created a spectacle that lives with him to this day. Gravity, coupled with the force of Austin’s swing, inevitably saw him fall backwards into the abyss with his face being submerged just below the waterline for what seemed like an eternity but in truth, for just long enough to maximize lasting comedic effect. When vision of the incident got around the course on the big screens, it was only appropriate given Austin’s saturated state that there was barely a dry eye in the house. “You couldn’t see who it was because his head was underwater,” Steve Stricker said, “But you figured it had to be Woody.” Later that evening, Captain Jack Nicklaus told Phil Mickelson that he was being paired with ‘Jacques Cousteau’ in the next morning’s foursomes. ‘Cousteau’ and Mickelson had the last laugh however, soundly defeating Stuart Appleby and Retief Goosen 5/4, with Austin going on to play in all five matches and contributing a win and three half points to the winning effort. With a new ‘Aquaman’ nickname now assured, Austin’s sense of the ridiculous was in evidence on the final day when he donned a scuba mask walking up the 14th fairway. “Woody Austin will have a gallery wherever he goes now.” Nicklaus quipped. 17 years on and Weir will face off against one of the men who buried his face in his cap to smother his laughter in Jim Furyk, while other 2007 protagonists Stewart Cink, Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman, Geoff Ogilvy and Adam Scott will fill either captain’s assistant or playing roles for their respective teams. Strong performances at the Scottish Open and Open Championship in July almost guaranteed Scott would make an 11th appearance for the Internationals at Royal Montreal and his joint runner-up finish at the BMW Championship behind Keegan Bradley removed all doubt. However, simply being able to emulate what Woody Austin was able to accomplish in terms of lifting the trophy will be of more importance to the Queenslander who debuted in 2003 when the teams shared the spoils in South Africa but alas, has been forced to stomach nine straight defeats ever since. Hopes that this unenviable streak can be put to rest in Canada may rest squarely with a homegrown contingent that have all drawn career inspiration from Weir himself, having cited his 2003 Masters victory as a seminal moment in their young lives. Corey Connors, Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes received Captain’s picks from Weir which, assuming they play well, will assure the team will have cacophonous hometown support in Montreal. “It’s an exciting time for men’s golf in Canada,” Weir said, “For a lot of players in my era, there were just a couple of us that were in there. It’s great to see all those guys playing well.” “It’ll create a different buzz and it’ll create a little more energy.” In 2022, the pool of players available for each team for the matches at Quail Hollow were impacted by players from both the U.S. and Internationals squads signing with LIV Golf and thus, resigning their membership from the PGA TOUR. While the impact was felt in both camps, the depth of the Internationals was more sorely tested by the loss of Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Louis Oosthuizen who had played significant roles in the team’s spirited 2019 showing at Royal Melbourne. In their absence, a new breed headed by Connors, Pendrith, Cameron Davis, Tom Kim, Christian Bezuidenhuit and K.H. Lee stepped into the breach and performed admirably at relatively short notice. Kim was one of six automatic qualifiers for the 2024 team alongside Hideki Matsuyama (pictured), Sungjae Im, Jason Day, Ben An and Scott, as strong a nucleus of players that Weir could have hoped for ahead of his six Captain’s picks. Weir will have two Cup rookies in Min Woo Lee and Hughes debut at Royal Montreal and with many of his veterans in some form and rookies blooded in 2022, Weir will almost certainly be taking a more battle-hardened group into action than previous captain Immelman had at his disposal. And he’ll need all that experience and more as the Cup-holding Americans will once again be brimming with both talent and team experience, headed by Masters and FedEx Cup champion Scottie Scheffler, PGA and Open champion Xander Schauffele, 2023 U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and a ready mix of team veterans in Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa. Scheffler’s sublime form in the first half of 2024 had him well and truly at the head of the U.S. team standings, with more than double the points of the next player until Xander Schaeffele managed to narrow the gap with his PGA Championship and Open Championship triumphs. Scheffler’s win at the Travelers Championship in June was a ‘Tigeresque’ sixth in the calendar year alone, highlighted by victories at The Masters and Players ahead of an epic gold medal winning performance at the Olympic Games in Paris. To then add the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup to an already bulging trophy cabinet was further icing on an enormous cake for the Texan who will view the Presidents Cup as one last challenge to conquer in an epic 2024. However, matchplay is an entirely different beast as the 2022 matches at Quail Hollow illustrated. Scheffler also entered that week as the world number one but endured a tough campaign, earning only a half point from his four matches, capped off by a 2/1 loss in the Singles to Sebastian Munoz. In Sahith Theegala, Russell Henley, Brian Harman and Clark, Furyk’s rookie group will showcase the experience of two recent major champions in Harman and Clark and he was also able to add more players with Ryder and Presidents Cup team experience in Keegan Bradley, Tony Finau and Max Homa to round out his team. Several controversial selections for the squad that contested the Ryder Cup in Italy last year – primarily Thomas’ inclusion despite indifferent form – had dire consequences for the U.S. team and you get the feeling Furyk was a little more cutthroat in his selection policies in the aftermath of that loss. Past team stalwarts in Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth were overlooked due to prevailing form, or injury in Spieth’s case, with Furyk sticking to the top 12 on the qualifying list to form his team. A repeat of the Rome performance by the U.S. would of course be what dreams are made of for anyone involved with and supporting the Internationals and quite frankly, would provide an overdue shot in the arm for a competition that has steadily become more maligned with every Internationals’ loss. The timing of the departure of key players to LIV just prior to the ninth-successive loss in 2022 may have given the critics pause but the knives have been out for format changes, or even for the PGA TOUR-owned Cup to be scrapped altogether, for over a decade. With the TOUR well and truly aboard the burning platform of change since the arrival of the LIV challenge to the status quo, could another Internationals’ drubbing in Montreal lead to seismic changes to the Cup as we know it? With that backdrop in mind, there is likely to be much more at stake at Île Bizard from 26-29 September than what might first appear. |
