Captain Trevor Immelman didn’t have near the pool of candidates for the International Presidents Cup team as he probably envisioned when he get the job more than two years ago.
After being decimated by LIV defections, especially after last week’s departures, Immelman selected Si Woo Kim, K.H. Lee, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Sebastián Muñoz, Taylor Pendrith and Cam Davis as his six captain’s picks for the Presidents Cup, which begins in two weeks at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.
Only Kim has previous experience at the Presidents Cup, making the team in 2017 after his win at that year’s Players Championship.
They join auto-qualifiers Hideki Matsuyama, Corey Connors, Sungjae Im, Joohyung Kim, Mito Pereira and Adam Scott on the international squad. That list is of course missing Open Championship winner Cameron Smith and Joaquin Neimann, who were removed from the team last week following their decision to join LIV Golf. (The PGA Tour has suspended players who have left for LIV, and the Tour runs the Presidents Cup.) This gave Immelmann two extra captain’s picks.
Also absent from the list are previous International team members Anirban Lahiri and Marc Leishman, who were also announced as new signees of LIV Golf after the conclusion of the Tour Championship. Both would have been potential captain’s picks. Other previous International team members who were ineligible due commitments to LIV Golf were Abraham Ancer, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace.
Pereira is rumored to be mulling a move to LIV Golf, but is reportedly holding out making a start in the Saudi-backed, upstart league in order to maintain his eligibility for the Presidents Cup team.
With the captain’s selections, the International team now represents seven different countries: Australia, South Africa, South Korea, Canada, Chile, Colombia and Japan.
The U.S. team has six captain’s selections remaining for Davis Love III. The American auto-qualifiers were Patrick Cantlay, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas and Sam Burns. Love will make his picks on Wednesday.
The U.S. team will also miss some stalwarts due to LIV Golf defections, players like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau will be unable to participate. Will Zalatoris, who is 7th on the points list for the American team, also previously withdrew from the biannual matches due to a back injury that forced him out of the FedEx Cup Playoffs last month.
The Presidents Cup is Sept. 23-25 at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. The U.S. has an 11-1-1 record over the Internationals in the matches.
