an unwillingness to succumb to the US juggernaut. He’s won 23 points in his 11 appearances. But two other recent stars from Down Under, Jason Day and Marc Lieshman, have been underwhelming, raking in 7½ points from 27 matches. Some players don’t seem to have that matchplay temperament in a team environment. Southern Africans were the backbone of the International team (15 different players) for many years – we had five members in the 2013 team, plus the captain (Nick Price); yet our players have been treated shoddily in recent matches, mainly because those that didn’t move to LIV don’t feature that high in the World Ranking. In the last five Presidents Cups our players have only competed in 36 matches (Australians in 64) but we nevertheless produced a 61% winning record of 22 points. Christiaan Bezuidenhout was the only SA golfer chosen in 2022 and 2024 (wildcard pick), yet surprisingly both Trevor Immelman (2022 captain) and Mike Weir treated him as a weak link judging from his being benched in five SA PLAYER RECORDS in Presidents Cup Points Player Matches 21 Ernie Els 8 (40) 15½ R Goosen 6 (29) 11 L Oosthuizen 4 (19) 10 N Price 5 (23) 7½ C Schwartzel 4 (17) 7 Tim Clark 3 (15) 7 B Grace 3 (14) 4 M McNulty 2 (9) 3½ D Frost 2 (7) 3½ Bezuidenhout 2 (5) 2 B De Jonge 1 (5) 1½ Fulton Allem 1 (5) 1½ T Immelman 2 (8) 0.5 R Sabbatini 1 (4) 0 R Sterne 1 (4) 95½ 15 players 45 (204)
Christiaan Bezuidenhout may have struggled on the greens in Canada yet went on to win his Sunday singles for the Internationals.
Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im enjoyed a record-equalling 7/6 win over Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele on day two’s foursomes at Royal Montreal, but the magic had worn off on day three of their partnership when they lost twice in betterball and foursomes.
singles against Kevin Kisner and Brian Harman. In contrast, Canadian Taylor Pendrith got 9 matches, and lost seven of them. Thriston Lawrence should have been a wild-card choice this year following his Open performance at Royal Troon, and would have been an ideal combination with Bezuidenhout, who has shuffled between three different partners in the last two years.
of the 10 matches. In singles he was sent out at the back of the field at No 11 and No 12. This year Weir, an oddly uninspiring leader in front of his home crowd – his first day betterball pairings were poor, and who thinks it’s a good idea to play the same eight players twice on a 36-hole day – sidelined Bezuidenhout for the entire Saturday. Yet he delivered 3½ points for the team in 2022 and 2024, winning both his
Overall SA win-rate 47% Japan (6 players) had 50% Korea (8 players) had 47% Canada (6 players) had 44% ANZ (24 players) had 42% South America (9) had 35%
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 67
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024
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