There were very few certainties ahead of the selection of the duos for the first day of competition at the Presidents Cup. But on Wednesday, as soon as the first tandem was announced, American captain Jim Furyk and his acolytes muddied the waters.
After playing together in the last two Presidents Cups and the two most recent Ryder Cups, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay will not start the tournament side by side, as was expected.
When Mike Weir identified Jason Day and Byeong Hun An as the first duo to kick off the international team at 11:35 a.m. Thursday, Team USA responded by sending Schauffele and Tony Finau into the fray.
PHOTO RYAN REMIORZ, THE CANADIAN PRESS
International team captain Mike Weir
While the Schauffele/Cantlay tandem won two of their three duels at the Presidents Cup in 2022, they lost both of their Ryder Cup clashes last year.
Cantlay will then be paired with Sam Burns for the fifth and final match of the day. They will face Hideki Matsuyama and Corey Conners, two of the best players in the world for consistency on their tee shots and precision with their irons.
“We wanted to maximize our potential,” Furyk said after the media room lineup. “We had options based on Mike’s choices. [Weir]. »
The international team captain and his assistants also appeared surprised by their opponents’ choice, with just 45 seconds remaining in the two minutes allotted for a decision when they selected Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee with their second cap.
For their part, the Americans have always chosen quickly and confidently.
The format
Thursday will offer fans at the Royal Montreal Golf Club five duels. The first game format, chosen by the home team captain, will be four-ball. Each of the four players will play their own ball, as is customary, then the player from both teams who has hit the fewest shots will give his team a point.
With the United States looking to defend its title, Furyk had the top pick, but he conceded it to Weir, who selected Day and An. They were the last two players to qualify automatically from the international squad. They will have a tough time beating Schauffele, the world number two, and Finau, who is positive at the Presidents Cup.
For the second matchup, scheduled for 11:53 a.m., the Americans chose Collin Morikawa and Sanith Theegala, the two youngest players on the team, at 27 and 26, respectively. To face them, Weir thought of Australians Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee. The former will play the tournament for the 11e times, while the second has never participated before. “It was an obvious choice, because they know each other very well,” Weir justified.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Collin Morikawa
Weir has once again focused on friendships for the third matchup, pairing Koreans Sungjae Im and Tom Kim. At 12:11 p.m., they will face off against Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top player, and Russell Henley, the 14th-ranked player.e world player and a 35-year-old rookie. The two had just trained together on Monday, during an alternating shot match against other compatriots.
In the fourth matchup, at 12:29 p.m., American Wyndham Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, will play alongside veteran Keegan Bradley, who won the BMW Championship just a few weeks ago. They will face the most fragile pairing on the international team. Taylor Pendrith will be the first Canadian player to tee off, along with South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout. This is the only one of the 10 pairs on Tuesday that includes two invited players, and not automatic qualifiers among the top six based on their number of points in the standings.
Corey Conners, the best-placed Canadian on the world stage, will break the ice in the fifth duel of the day, at 12:47 p.m. The 37e The world player will play with the best player in the international team, the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama.
The decisions
So Weir and his colleagues chose not to pair two Canadian players for the first day of competition.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Mackenzie Hughes
Even Mackenzie Hughes, the third representative of the maple leaf, will be nailed to the bench. The same goes for Korean Si-Woo Kim, who holds the third differential in terms of team efficiency at the Presidents Cup, with a winning rate of 57.14%. “We thought about playing all the Canadians, but we had discussions and we wanted to stay true to the plan,” explained Weir.
For the Americans, Max Homa and Brian Harman will also have to be spectators on Thursday. “We would have liked to have made a different choice,” Furyk explained about Homa, the lowest-ranked player on the team but hugely popular with the fans. “He’s been playing confidently lately. But he’ll definitely play this week.”
He will definitely play, because according to the rules of the tournament, each player must be sent into the fray at least once. The first team to accumulate 15.5 points during the week will be crowned. The Americans have triumphed in the last nine editions of the tournament.