Pendrith named to International Team for Presidents Cup

Canada’s Taylor Pendrith will join his long-time friend and former Kent State University roommate Corey Conners on the International team for the Presidents Cup.

Pendrith, a PGA Tour rookie, was announced as one of six picks by captain Trevor Immelman on Tuesday. He becomes the fifth Canadian to play in the event, joining Mike Weir, Graham DeLaet, Adam Hadwin and Conners. It marks the first time the squad has featured two Canadian players.

“He’s a player that we think is in great form right now,” said Immelman, “and his game matches up extremely well with what we know about Quail Hollow where we're having this Presidents Cup. He's one of the longest hitters on Tour, top 10 in driving distance this season, so we think we can use that to our advantage.”

Immelman said he added Pendrith to his team due to his fine play over the last two months of the PGA Tour season. After returning to the tour following a four-month layoff due to a broken rib, the Richmond Hill, Ont., product finished inside the top 13 in five of six starts. He had a legitimate shot to win the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, eventually finishing tied for second.

The other players added to the team via the selection process were K.H. Lee, Sebastian Munoz, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Cam Davis and Si Woo Kim. They join Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Mito Pereira, Sungjae Im and Tom Kim.

Pendrith is long off the tee, ranking 10th in driving distance on the PGA Tour, and accurate into the greens, sitting 10th in Greens in Regulation. Immelman said that despite his long relationship with Conners, he isn’t certain the two Canadians will play together.

“That absolutely is an option,” he stated. “I know exactly how close they are. But over the last three or four years, one of the hurdles our team has overcome is we’re at a point where we don’t have to match people of the same nationality to get the best out of them.”

Immelman had six picks, gaining two last week when Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann left for the LIV Tour. Earlier in the year, he also lost Abraham Ancer, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace and Marc Leishman from the roster when they joined LIV as well.

“There were some anxious times in there for sure,” he said, “not quite sure where we were going to be and trying to gather as much information as I could from all sorts of different players who were making decisions on what they were going to do.

“I think the fact that we were so well prepared over the last couple of years with our backroom staff and with everybody that was involved, we could make those moves quickly but it still was pretty frustrating at times.

As is always the case, the captain’s picks were questioned and perhaps the biggest omission was Adam Hadwin, who has fared well in the last two Presidents Cups. He was 10th in the overall standings.

Mackenzie Hughes, who was also under consideration, had a poor finish to the season and was not expecting to be named to the team. He finished up in 12th spot on the points list.

Immelman said that both players were on the short list but ended up not making the final cut for a variety of reasons but mostly because other players appealed more to him.

“Hadwin has played a couple Presidents Cups, so he had that as a little bit of an edge in our decision-making process,” said Immelman. “Mac Hughes also a great putter, lives in Charlotte, so those were his advantages.

“But at the end of the day, we had to try and find a way to blend different things together, whether it be through team chemistry, whether it be through matchups with the golf course and how we believe the golf course is going to be set up. This is what we went with.”

The International team is full of talented players but short on experience. Only two of the 12 players – Scott and Matsuyama – have played more than a single Presidents Cup and seven players, including both Canadians, are making their debuts.

American team captain Davis Love III will announce his six picks Wednesday. While his side has lost a number of players to LIV as well, it’s expected that the U.S. team will be heavy favourites. In the past 13 editions of the event, the Americans have won 11, tied one and lost just once.

This year’s event gets underway Sept. 20 in Charlotte, N.C., at Quail Hollow Club.