Presidents Cup finally seems legit

Bob Weeks

TSN Senior Reporter

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There have been far too many times when the Presidents Cup has more closely resembled a Harlem Globetrotters game with the International team playing the part of the Washington Generals. You knew they were going to lose and be embarrassed before the opening tip-off.

Unlike the Ryder Cup, this team event had been boring and meaningless on too many occasions because it simply hasn’t been competitive. It’s carried all the intensity and drama of a pie-eating contest. War by the Shore? This has been more like Meander in the Meadow.

But this time, things were different. This time, it felt real, as if it mattered. Sure, the Americans still won, earning a 16-14 victory, but nothing was assured until late on Sunday. Two years ago, the Yanks could have played the singles with half-sets and likely still earned the four points necessary to win the cup.

Not this time. All week there were momentum shifts aplenty. There was some good golf and some not-so-good. It’s what you expect in match play over the course of four days and it’s what makes it interesting.

On Friday, the U.S. side won two matches and tied another, all on the 18th hole. On Saturday afternoon, the Internationals dug out two half-points on the final hole, stemming the American onslaught. Those moments brought out the emotion in the golfers that this meant something.

There was even some good-old fashioned antagonism. Some icy stares at opponents, a few you’re-making-me-putt-this moments, like Justin Thomas showing his putt was inside the leather. Those are the kinds of things that built the Ryder Cup into the event it is and for perhaps the first time, it happened at the Presidents Cup.

The fact that a hyper-partisan Aussie crowd probably bent the rules of traditional golf decorum to a 90-degree angle didn’t hurt either. That wasn’t necessarily new, but maybe for the first time, it was the U.S. team on the receiving end. Clearly it bugged them, especially when they were losing.

“There's obviously some yelling,” said Tiger Woods, the U.S. captain, of the fans. “There are people who have had a lot to drink and have gone over the top.”

Was it over the top? You bet. The fans’ favourite target was American whipping boy Patrick Reed, who got it non-stop from the moment he arrived in Australia.

Some followed him around with plastic toy shovels, mocking his rules breach and possible cheating episode a week earlier in the Bahamas. Another group followed him around with T-shirts that read “We love a Tiger but we hate a Cheetah.”

When he walked to the first tee for his singles match on Sunday, the crowd belted out the Darth Vader death march theme music.

The other factor that made this so genuine was that the U.S. was in real danger of losing. They trailed almost the entire week, until some strong play late on Sunday when Matt Kuchar tapped in to ensure a half point that gave Captain Woods and his boys their eighth consecutive win.

Ernie Els gave it a hell of a go, getting his players to accept his ultimate rule and game plan. Play this way and we’ll have a chance, he told them, backing up his plea with analytics.

“If you compare our team on paper with other teams in other sport, you would have laughed us out of the building,” Els said in his closing press conference. “But we gave it a hell of a go and we came mightily close to winning and upsetting one of the greatest golf teams of all time.

“They tried so hard. They played so hard for each other and the team, and to buy into something new like I tried, I really have to take my hat off to every one of them.”

That something new was primarily an exercise in building the cohesiveness of a team. Different countries, different languages, different customs fill up the team room. In the past, it’s made it tough to bring them all together.

Els did that in a year-long process of meetings and practice rounds, encouraging them to build a common cause. That, of course, would be a goal of kicking the Americans’ butts. It didn’t happen, but under the new team logo designed by Els, the Internationals felt as if they were all playing for each other for the first time in a long time.

Individually, players like Sungjae Im, Abraham Ancer and C.T. Pan, not exactly household names at the start of the week, impressed with their talent. Im is 21, the other two just 28. They’ll be the future as veterans like Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman begin fade out.

“I'm very optimistic about things going forward here, so I don't – I don't feel, I'm disappointed,” stated Scott. “That's all I can say. But I like what's happening in the future, like I said. I can't wait for another crack at it.”

The Americans will still be difficult to beat. They will always bring a strong team that will assuredly be the favourites. But to see their celebratory boozy bus ride video of them singing We Are The Champions shows how important a win this was to them.

Will this mark the start of a new era for the Presidents Cup? One year doesn’t make a trend, but in some ways, it feels as if the International Team seems more like a genuine entity. That can only make for a better event. Here’s to 2021 at Quail Hollow.