PGA Tour need to show less bias when it comes to the Presidents Cup BY STUART McLEAN Presidents Cup EVEN PLAYING FIELD WOULD BENEFIT THE
HE PRESIDENTS CUP is one of the most enjoy- able events in golf, yet how much longer can the game tolerate a pre- dictable victory for the United States team? It’s now 10 wins in a row over the Internationals.
as they had been in Korea in 2015 and Australia in 2019, when the Internationals were narrowly defeated. The history of the Ryder Cup match between Europe and the US shows that the American superstars are champion golfers on home turf, yet vulnerable to defeat on foreign soil. They haven’t won in Europe since 1993 because they are not allowed to dictate the terms of the away matches. The PGA Tour also is not involved in the Ryder Cup. The original purpose of the Presidents Cup when introduced in 1994 was to provide a competitive stage for those golfers ineligible for the Ryder Cup Match. A platform for the International team players to display their prowess. And everyone thought it would develop into an equally great contest, boosting the popularity of global golf once the matches started travelling around the planet. Asia was clearly the next big growth point. But the PGA Tour showed their hand early by hosting the first two matches in America. In 30 years, the Presidents Cup has only once gone to Asia. There have been three matches in Australia, two in Canada and one in South Africa. The Presidents Cup will probably never return to South Africa, and certainly not to Asia this decade, unless the PGA Tour
The PGA Tour’s ownership of the cup doesn’t help. Everything they do favours their own team and acts against a more competitive environment. Of the last 10 matches, seven have been played in North America, with the PGA Tour providing the course setup. And the next one in 2026 is back in the US, at Medinah outside Chicago. So that will be eight out of 11, or an overall total of 12 out of 16. How on earth does anyone expect the Internationals to break their run of defeats if they are continually asked to play away from home? Yes, this year’s match was played in Canada, but you could essentially call it a home game for the US because it’s just across the border, and the course conditions resembled a typical PGA Tour putting contest venue. The Americans were certainly not removed from their comfort zone, let alone their time zone,
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