Tag: 2022 Presidents Cup

2022 Fortinet Championship: Presidents Cup golfers who made, missed the cut in Napa

Some players didn’t do too well in the Presidents Cup tune up.

If the PGA Tour’s season-opening Fortinet Championship is foreshadowing anything, next week could be rough for the International team at the Presidents Cup.

The United States is heavily favored at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte in an event it has lost only once in its history. The International team, which features plenty of talent but a lot of newcomers after the losses of Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann, among others, to the LIV Golf Series, would pull off a huge upset if it were to find a way to be victorious.

Yet members of the International team struggled at Silverado Resort’s North Course while the lone U.S. member sits in the lead.

Fortinet: PGA Tour on ESPN+ | Leaderboard

Max Homa, the defending champion, is tied for the lead at 12 under. The other U.S. connection is assistant captain Webb Simpson, who is a member at Quail Hollow. He missed the cut, which was at 2 under, after rounds of 70-74 put him at even par.

For the Internationals, Cam Davis and Corey Conners can head east early. Davis, from Austrailia, shot 2 under in the second round, but a 74 on Thursday had him in an early hole. Conners, a Canadian who has one PGA Tour victory, birdied four of his last five holes on the front nine to make the turn at 3 under for the day and 5 under for the tournament, but he had two bogeys, a triple bogey and no birdies on the back nine to miss the cut.

Hideki Matsuyama was below the cut line with only three holes to play, but he birdied Nos. 16 and 18 to make the cut at 3 under.  Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, has the second-most experience among International Presidents Cup members, trailing only Adam Scott on this year’s team.

Taylor Pendrith, the 31-year-old Canadian making his first Presidents Cup appearance, made the cut. He was on the number until a birdie on the 18th, moving him to 3 under for the tournament.

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Tom Kim hires a veteran caddie for the Presidents Cup: Joe Skovron

Rickie Fowler and Joe Skovron parted ways in August after 13 years together.

NAPA, Calif. — Tom Kim will have an experienced hand on the bag at the 2022 Presidents Cup.

The 20-year-old South Korean, who made Trevor Immelman’s International Team, has hired Joe Skovron, who spent the previous 13 years caddying for Rickie Fowler.

Skovron, 41, was by Fowler’s side when he won his first PGA Tour title at the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, host course for the Presidents Cup, which begins Thursday.

“For me, it’s great to be at a course that I’m so familiar with, that Rickie had a ton of success at and we went back to every year,” said Skovron, who spoke while waiting to catch a flight to Dallas to work with Kim this weekend before heading to Charlotte next week. “At least I’ll have familiarity with the golf course as we get a feel for each other.”

Kim has had a meteoric rise to No. 21 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He won the Wyndham Championship in August despite making a quadruple bogey on the first hole of the tournament. In doing so, he became the first winner on the PGA Tour born in the 2000s and the second-youngest winner since World War II, trailing only Jordan Spieth at the 2013 John Deere Classic.

It’s a smart move to pair the inexperienced Kim with a seasoned veteran with plenty of local knowledge. Kim’s agent, Ben Harrison of SportFive, sought out Skovron, a veteran of three Presidents Cups and someone who knows the ins-and-outs of international competition, and made the introduction. Skovron, who first took note of Kim at the Scottish Open this summer, said he’s agreed to work with Kim at the Shriners Children’s Open, Zozo Championship and the CJ Cup this fall.

“It’s an exciting opportunity with Tom and we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

Asked about Skovron teaming up with Kim, Fowler said he hoped the two would click and form a lasting partnership.

“I’m stoked for him,” Fowler said. “We were in Memphis (at the FedEx St. Jude Championship) and Tom was making faces and playing with my little girl. He seems like a great kid. It was great to see him play the way he did at Wyndham. I’m excited for Joe. He’s getting a younger guy who is fresh.”

Joe Skovron at the 2019 Masters.

Fowler and Skovron parted ways last month after 13 years together. For Fowler’s fan club, it will take some getting used to seeing their guy with Ricky Romano, who started on the bag for Fowler this week at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California.

“With us, it was so much more than a player-caddie relationship,” Skovron said. “We have history from the time he was a little kid, growing up in the same town, my parents knowing him that long, me knowing his family that long, it was tough and I think we did the best we could with it and everything is fine with us. I look forward to our relationship going forward.”

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Photos: Cameron Young through the years

View photos of Presidents Cup pick Cameron Young throughout his brief professional career.

Cameron Young has quickly become one of the faces of the PGA Tour.

The 2019 Wake Forest graduate made quick work to get to the PGA Tour, securing his Tour card after a stellar 2021 season on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Through just 27 professional starts, Young has already tallied two top-five finishes in majors and five runner-up finishes in the 2021-22 season alone. He became just the seventh player since 1980 to record five runner-up finishes in a season.

Just one stroke away from joining a playoff the 2022 PGA Championship and forcing one in the 2022 Open Championship, Smith watched as Justin Thomas and Cameron Smith etched their names in history.

Now, Smith will join Thomas in Smith’s first Presidents Cup appearance. The New York native will venture down the eastern seaboard to help Team USA seek its ninth consecutive title.

Bryson DeChambeau calls out Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup for ‘only hurting themselves’ by not allowing LIV Golf players to compete

“It is sad that those governing bodies have not allowed us to be able to qualify. That’s all I can say to that.”

Bryson DeChambeau is focused on LIV Golf’s fifth event this week near Chicago, but with the 2022 Presidents Cup just a week away, the three-time member of Team USA as a professional said it’s sad he and his fellow LIV players will be stuck watching from home.

“I personally think that the team events are only hurting themselves by not allowing us to play, not allowing us to qualify through some capacity, in some facet,” DeChambeau said during his pre-tournament press conference Thursday at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois.

“But I would say from a team aspect, it is sad that those governing bodies have not allowed us to be able to qualify. That’s all I can say to that,” DeChambeau said before continuing. “I want to play in numerous events on the PGA Tour. It would be awesome. That’s what LIV Golf has tried to, they have allowed us to play on the PGA Tour. It’s the PGA Tour barring us from doing so.”

The PGA Tour has suspended players who have competed in LIV Golf events, following its own Tournament Regulations dating back to the first round of suspensions after the start of LIV’s first event in London. Despite the sour thoughts, DeChambeau will “absolutely” be watching the action at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, next week as the Internationals look to win on American soil for the first time in the event’s 28-year history.

“Look, I’m a golf fan, first and foremost. I’m going to watch golf wherever it’s played with some of the best players in the world, whoever it is,” explained DeChambeau. “I think down the road that’ll change. I think that this will become something special, even more special than what it is now, and moving forward in the future, I’ll still watch other tournaments that I’ve won and done well at before.”

DeChambeau was a member of Team USA at both the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris and 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits and holds a 2-3-1 record. He made his Presidents Cup debut for the red, white and blue in 2019 at Royal Melbourne, where he compiled an 0-1-1 record.

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Meet the six players United States captain Davis Love III picked for the 2022 Presidents Cup

Check out Team USA’s six captains picks for the Presidents Cup.

Not only does Davis Love III have the homefield advantage at the Presidents Cup later this month, but the captain of Team USA has a distinct edge in the talent department, as well.

The first six players for the American side qualified Aug. 21 via the Presidents Cup points standings – Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau – leaving Love six captains picks for the biennial event comprised of a 12-person U.S. Team and a 12-person International Team (LIV Golf and European players, aside) to be held Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Americans lead the all-timeseries 11-1-1.

Meet the six players Love selected to fill out his lineup for Quail Hollow.

More: Meet the automatic qualifiers for Team USA
International Team: Automatic qualifiers | Captains picks

Meet the six players International captain Trevor Immelman picked for the upcoming Presidents Cup

When Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann made the jump to LIV, Immelman suddenly had an extra pair of selections.

Trevor Immelman’s job as the Presidents Cup captain for the International Team has become more difficult as the competition approaches.

The top eight players on the points list had earned a spot on the team for the biennial event against the United States to be held Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, meaning Immelman had four picks to make.

But when a pair of players — Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann — made the jump to LIV Golf before the recent event outside Boston, Immelman suddenly had an extra pair of selections to play with. This followed the costly defections of Louis Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer, about whom Immelman had previously said, “We’ve lost two guys that were absolutely going to be there at Quail Hollow.”

The Presidents Cup is a match-play event with 30 total matches, comprised of a 12-person U.S. Team and a 12-person International Team. The U.S. leads 11-1-1.

Here’s a look at the six players Immelman selected on Tuesday to fill out his team.

More: Meet the automatic qualifiers for the International Team at the 2022 Presidents Cup

U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Davis Love III organizing team gathering ahead of competition

Davis Love III is taking a page out of the Steve Stricker Ryder Cup playbook.

Davis Love III still has a few days before he announces his six captain’s picks to the 2022 U.S. Presidents Cup team, but he has already made one decision: he’s going to take a page out of the Steve Stricker Ryder Cup playbook and organize a team-bonding reconnaissance mission to Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte ahead of the Presidents Cup, which begins September 22.

“It’s hard to pin 12 PGA Tour pros down, but we’re going to try to play a practice round or two before,” Love said. “We want to get Cam Young and Billy Horschel – the guys who haven’t played a Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup – to see it. I think that really helped us at Whistling Straits (last year’s Ryder Cup site). You get over the grandeur of it. Jack Nicklaus gave us a great speech before the 2016 Ryder Cup. He said he’d go to the Masters and play three or four rounds the week before and keep score and then go home and relax and when he’d come back on Monday he was ready to go. I think that philosophy helps guys get over the shock of it rather than walking out there Monday afternoon and it’s wham.”

Love recalled his own personal experience playing at the 1995 Ryder Cup at Oak Hill.

“I was like Holy cow, this feels like the U.S. Open with a lot more tents,” he said.

While most of the 24 players in the biennial competition likely have some experience playing at Quail Hollow from competing in the Tour’s annual Wells Fargo Championship – it took a one-year hiatus and was held at TPC Avenel Farms this year – or the 2017 PGA Championship, Love still wanted to avoid a mistake the U.S. side made at the 2018 Ryder Cup.

“That’s what got us in Paris,” he said. “They knew the course so much better than us.”

Love noted one potential obstacle for assembling all the newcomers to the team let alone his full squad for a field trip ahead of the Presidents Cup. Max Homa, who is a likely selection after winning twice last season and finishing tied for fifth in the Tour Championship, is the defending champion at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California, which is being held the week before the biennial competition, and scheduled to play.

“He knows the golf course but he doesn’t want to miss the hang out,” Love said.

Homa actually knows Quail Hollow well enough that he claimed his first Tour title there in 2019.

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Animation gives fans an idea of what to expect on the first tee at the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow

A crowd of 2,500 fans will be packed around the first tee at Quail Hollow.

The PGA Tour season has come and gone and now golf fans have their eyes fixed on Quail Hollow Club for next month’s 2022 Presidents Cup.

If you can’t make it to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the biennial matches that pit the best players in the United States against a team of the best players from around the world (Europe and LIV Golf excluded), the folks behind the Presidents Cup have released a little teaser that gives golf fans an idea of what to expect at what should make for a wild first tee atmosphere.

While the animated graphic shows a good mix of American and International supporters, the first tee setup will feature 2,500 fans that will almost assuredly be dominated by the Red, White and Blue.

Six players automatically qualified for Team USA as well as eight for the Internationals, but International captain Trevor Immelman will need to replace Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann, who have since joined LIV Golf.

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Justin Leonard on golf fitness as he becomes Champions Tour player

Averee Dovsek sat down with Justin Leonard on Instagram to chat with him about golf fitness, The Presidents Cup and the Champions Tour.

“When I stepped away from the game back in 2015 and 2016 and kind of stopped playing full time, I got away from golf specific training,” said Justin Leonard.

“Just in the last year or so I have gotten back into much more specific golf training. The swing trainer cuts my time in half because I am able to do such specific workouts. I can get right to it, work on my core, stability and rotational movements,” said Leonard.

Golfweek’s Averee Dovsek sat down with Justin Leonard on Instagram live to chat with him about his golf fitness, The Presidents Cup and his plans on the Champions Tour.

Watch the interview on Golfweek’s Instagram below.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/ChmvrLALX0I/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

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GolfForever Swing Trainer
GolfForever Swing Trainer. (GolfForever)

Justin Leonard is a brand ambassador and contributor for the GolfForever trainer.

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Meet the eight automatic qualifiers for the International Team at the 2022 Presidents Cup

Eight players have qualified for next month’s event at Quail Hollow.

The International Team for the 2022 Presidents Cup is starting to take shape.

The qualification period for captain Trevor Immelman’s squad wrapped up at the end of the 2022 BMW Championship, with the top eight players on the points list earning a spot on the team for the biennial event against the United States to be held Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In a recent Q&A with Golfweek, Immelman said the players who have left for LIV Golf and are currently unable to play in the event have “hurt us immensely,” and expanded on the costly loses of Louis Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer, saying “We’ve lost two guys that were absolutely going to be there at Quail Hollow.”

‘No comment’: Cameron Smith doesn’t deny LIV Golf reports

Immelman will announce his four captain’s picks at a later date.

The Presidents Cup is a match play event with 30 total matches, comprised of a 12-person U.S. Team and 12-person International Team. The U.S. leads 11-1-1.

Let’s take a look at the eight internationals who qualified.

More: Meet the six Americans to qualify for the Presidents Cup