It’s a rum thing to ask why the International team struggles so to win a second Presidents Cup. I believe that it begins with the informal nickname of ROW (Rest of World) team. You aren’t USA and you aren’t Europe/GBI, so we’ll throw you all together in a cauldron and give it a stir, every other year. I don’t know what sort of alliance a Korean and a Canadian, a Chilean and a Chinese are able to forge, but I suspect it isn’t quite as potent as the one that the European side forges every two years in the Ryder Cup.
For a long time, the Ryder Cup was a one-sided affair, with the USA winning most often. A watershed moment happened in the 1980s, and the Ryder hasn’t been the same since. The Presidents Cup is sorely in need of that watershed moment. Seve Ballesteros united the European side, convinced it that it could win. Who is that standard bearer for the International side? Who has a passion and a pulpit similar to that of the great Iberian champion? I certainly don’t know.
The PCup International side also seems bent on inclusivity. I support this 100%, but it doesn’t figure to encourage the strongest possible team. Sure, you might pull together 12 different countries to wear a similar kit, but will it shake the world’s politics and ethos? No, it won’t.
I have a method for improving the President’s Cup, and I’m going to lay it out here, prior to diving into Tour Tech Rundown for the week. In 2027, while the eyes of the world are on Ireland and the Ryder Cup, the following micro-climates will join together to determine the 2028 PCup opponent for the USA: Canada, Mexico, and the non-USA Americas; Africa and Asia; Australia, and New Zealand. Three teams will do battle at both stroke and match play, and one will rise to compete as the International Side in the 2028 President’s Cup.
Barring that, please change the format. Have three singles and three partner matches on Thursday, Friday, Saturday AM, and Saturday PM, then do the same again on Sunday. This whole notion of finishing with singles matches screams The partner matches are icing, but the cake is the singles.
Can it get any worse than what we saw on Sunday at Medinah? I don’t think that it can. The USA gift-wrapped the victory for the International side, but the opposition decided to leave the wrapping paper and bow untouched.
Let’s adjourn to TTR, and take a look at the results from the week, and the equipment that got them there. The Korn Ferry, PGA Tour Americas, and PGA Tour Champions took the week off. The PGA Tour wants all eyes on the PCup, which explains the hiatuses (hiati?) for the three tours.
President’s Cup: Team USA extracts victory from the wide jaws of defeat
9.5 to 2.5
The Sunday singles tally at the 2026 Presidents Cup reminds me of when Steven Ames and Tiger Woods did battle in the PGA Tour Match Play, back in the day. Tiger’s answer to every post-match question was “9 and 8.” Ames, you see, had suggested that even the mighty Tiger was beatable, on a given day, and that if he was lucky, he would catch him on that day. Tiger, being Tiger, took it as a personal challenge and ran with it.
Team USA had played with gas, without energy, without much of anything, over the first three days of the 2026 President’s Cup. It found itself down by 10.5 to 7.5 after Saturday’s final, partner matches, but it was headed to its forte, the one-on-one, mano a mano of the singles match. USA players are notoriously self-motivated, and what better way to skew a competition in one team’s favor, than by positioning ten individual matches at the close of the competition?
And so it went. After spotting Ryo Hisatsune an early, two-up lead, Cameron Young went to work. The hero of Bethpage stormed back to defeat the young Japanese golfer and give the USA its first Sunday point, just as he did exactly one year ago to the day on Long Island.
Tom Kim squared things with a win against US Open champion Wyndham Clark, but Justin Thomas secured a second win for the USA, gutting a helpless Corey Conners by 5 and 3. It continued to get worse for the USA. Nico Echavarria lost by 2 and 1 to Scottie Scheffler and it was 3 to 1 on the day. Sungjae Im snared a second point for Team IHOP, but the battle of the Chris went to Gotterup over Bezuidenhout.
Hideki had an early lead over Morikawa, but gave it back. Adam Scott (why is he still on this team) lost to Patrick Cantlay, and Si Woo Kim, the guy that everyone in Dallas makes such a fuss over, lost to Jackson Koivun (why was he on this team?) There was still hope for the I-Side, but MinWoo, Ryan, and Nick could only source a half point among them. The final tally was 17 to 15, and the USA had a moral victory, if not a convincing one.
A year from now, in Ireland, Team Europe is already looking good. Unless…oh, never mind, that’s a diatribe for another column.
Golf Gear for International Team
Golf Gear for USA Team
LPGA: Yuna soars to the luna for first tour title
It’s fun when you take two language and make a rhyme. In Spanish, luna means the moon, and so Yuna Nishimura took to the moon to secure her first LPGA title in record fashion. Nishimura was one of two celestial bodies that made an appearance in Arkansas this weekend. On Saturday, Lauren Coughlin set a record by posting birdie on each hole of her back nine. Her score of 26 was an all-time record on any tour. Coughlin had opened with 73, so her day-two 61 brought her inside the top ten, but not into the championship mix.
Yuna la luna, you see, had posted consecutive rounds of 63, and she had scorched the leader’s board for a five-shot advantage on Auston Kim and Mary Liu. Neither Kim nor Liu had a day-three charge in her, and Nishimura was able to coast to a 66 on day four, and a five-shot margin of victory over In-gee Chun, Aki Iwai, and Chanettee Wannasaen.
Golf Gear for Yuna
DP World Tour: Fitzy M claims Open de France
It has been a wonderful year for England’s Fitzpatrick, but until this week, it was ALEX Fitzpatrick and his professional, coming-out party, that had our attention. There might be some sibling rivalry among the brothers Fitzpatrick, and older sibling Matt reminded us all this week that he is the champion golfer in the family. Fitzy M finished on twenty-deep, a trio of shots clear of runner-up Angel Hidalgo of Spain.
The winner opened with 65-64-65, chipping two shots away on this day, and another three on the next. He was able to coast home on Sunday with only a 70, good enough for a comfortable victory margin. Third place went to the trio of Matthieu Pavon, Eugenio Chacarra, and Kristoffer Reitan.
Golf Gear for Matt Fitzpatrick
Asian Tour: Hung comes through for initial AT title
Hung Chien-yao has toiled on the Asian Tour for a dozen years, and has had a fair number of close calls. He can now put those nearlys behind him, as he has won an Asian Tour title for the first time. To make it taste even sweeter, it came in his home country of Taiwan, at the Taiwan Masters.
Wade Ormsby gave chase to Hung over the course of day four, but the hometown hero (no pun intended) hung tough. Chien-yao closed with 141 over the weekend, and it was enough to keep the Australian challenger at bay by a single shot. Gavin Green and Jazz Janewattanond tied for third with two others on minus-five, two back of Ormsby and three behind the champion.
