The Presidents Cup golf tournament is making its debut in the Southeastern U.S. this week when Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte hosts the international event from Sept. 20 - 25. WFAE's Marshall Terry talks with Ron Green Jr., senior writer for Global Golf Post, about the event, the PGA and controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
Marshall Terry: It's going to be good golfing weather in Charlotte this week and some of the best players in the world will be hitting the greens at Quail Hollow Club for the Presidents Cup. Practice rounds begin today, with competition running Thursday through Sunday. We turn now to Ron Green Jr., who is a senior writer for Global Golf Post. He joins us from his home in Charlotte. For those of us who don't follow golf, Ron, what is the Presidents Cup, and what makes it so significant?
Ron Green Jr.: It's a team competition that pits 12 of the best American players against 12 players from what is called the international team. Even if you're not familiar with golf, you may have heard of the Ryder Cup — which along with the Masters, would be one of the two biggest golf events in the world — is played every two years. It's the best Americans against the best players from Europe. It is in a lot of ways the Super Bowl of golf, though they only play it every two years. The Presidents Cup is played in two-year intervals as well, on the years when the Ryder Cup isn't played. It started in 1994 and it's developed through the years, it's one of the jewels of the PGA Tour. If you've been to the Wells Fargo Championship, or are familiar with it, it won't be like that. It will be played in the same place, but it's match play instead of stroke play. Every hole is an individual match and you play 18 holes, or as many as it takes 'til somebody is so far ahead, the other side can't catch them.
Terry: So why no players from Europe? They play in the Ryder Cup, but not the Presidents Cup. The international players are from everywhere else in the world.
Green: Yeah, I mean, the Ryder Cup goes back, you know, close to 100 years and was originally America against Great Britain and Ireland. But they expanded in the '70s to include Europe because so many of the great players — like Bernhard Langer from Germany, Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal for Spain — to bring them in, and make it a little more competitive. So as the game became more global, they could see, I mean, a lot of great players from Canada, from South America, from Asia, obviously. They didn't have a vehicle and the tour saw that as a chance to ... Sure, it's a copy of the Ryder Cup in a lot of ways and they probably would prefer to couch it a different way. But they looked at the success, the Ryder Cup and, you know, the sincerest form of flattery: 'Hey, let's take and take the other players who were so much a part of the PGA Tour, so much a part of global golf and make this competition.'
Terry: What are the teams competing for exactly? Prize money? Bragging rights?
Green: Mostly bragging rights. The players don't really get paid. They are given money to designate to a charity of their choice. And it's going to have most of the top players in the game here.
Terry: And how and though, is that how you get to be on a team? You're just the top players is that how they're chosen?
Green: Yeah. There's a points list. You earn Presidents Cup points over the course of time and they keep a running total. And, you know, certain tournaments, if you win or place, finish highly, in them, you get more points. The more points you get, the more likely you are to make the team. And the way it's structured now, six players automatically qualify on points. Then the captain, in this case, Davis Love III, is allowed to pick six more players. Similarly, Trevor Immelman, the captain of the international team, he has six automatic qualifiers and added six more to his team.
Terry: You mentioned a couple of names, but just who is competing this year? What players are you keeping an eye on?
Green: The top-ranked player in the world is Scottie Scheffler, who won the Masters. He was the PGA Tour Player of the Year, won four times. He's going to be part of the American team. Guys like Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Sam Burns, Collin Morikawa, who's already won two major championships, he's going to be here. Kevin Kisner, who's hugely popular from Aiken, South Carolina. You know, Adam Scott will be one of the most recognizable names on the international team. Hideki Matsuyama, who won the Masters a couple of years ago, just been one of the best players in the world for the last eight to 10 years is going to be here.
Terry: The golf world was rocked earlier this year when several players announced they were leaving the PGA to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour. Now, that was met with backlash in the PGA, saying that players can't return to the tour. How is that affecting the Presidents Cup?
Green: The arrival of LIV Golf, I mean, it has disrupted the landscape of professional golf. I mean, it's, it's been pretty peaceful through the years. But, I mean, it is fractured right now. And several top players who would otherwise have been part of the Presidents Cup are no longer part of it. I mean, familiar names to American golf fans — Dustin Johnson, who was number one in the world for more than two years, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed. Those are guys who've been part of all these teams, whether Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup teams, through the years. Now they had not necessarily qualified for this team, but given the choice to add them, you could feel pretty sure that Davis Love — he's a pretty smart guy — he can look at those guys and think, 'Hey, I want them on my team.' Well, they left to join LIV Golf. And once you do that, you're no longer part of the PGA Tour. You're suspended indefinitely, perhaps permanently, and not eligible for these things. So it cost the American side those guys.
What really hurt the international team is Cameron Smith, who won the Players Championship — one of the biggest events — and the Open Championship — one of the four major championships this year — and really emerged as, you know, [a] tremendous player. He stayed with the PGA Tour through the playoffs but decided to go to LIV. And coupled with other guys earlier, a guy named Carlos Ortiz from Mexico, Abraham Ancer, also, — guys who would have been part of this team who are really good players — who may not be, you know, the first names all casual golf fans [have] at the top of their minds. It really took a lot of the meat out of the lineup of guys who were expected to be part of it.
Terry: What's your sense of what happens in the long run with LIV Golf and the PGA?
Green: Because of what LIV has done and offering just these extravagant amounts of money to players — I mean, they are being offered tens of millions of dollars to come play these events that, unlike PGA Tour events which are 72 holes of stroke play, these are only 54 holes, just three rounds. There's no cuts. It's a different form of competition. It's more like an exhibition, I think. But the impact is such that the money is enormous. And if you believe that guys are being offered $150 million to come do this plus whatever they win, you know, most of us never face the ethical question would I go take $150 million and turn my back on the organization that has allowed me to be the star I am? But that's what's happened. It's contentious. It's ugly. I mean, I don't know how it ends. I think it's probably been more disruptive than a lot of people believe it would have been had you asked them in January. There's a court case. LIV has sued the PGA Tour saying it's a monopoly, saying it's restricting players from play. And there's this whole argument: Are PGA Tour players, professional golfers, truly independent contractors? That's part of what the court case will be about. The first part of it was decided earlier this summer when three players sued to be allowed to play in an event that the Tour banned them from. And the court said, no, we're not going to grant you this temporary restraining order. You're banned. And we will meet again in January 2024 to figure out this lawsuit. It's going to be an interesting court case, I would imagine. I'll be in San Jose, California, in early January 2024, listening to lawyers talk about all this. But I don't see a resolution soon.
Terry: Well, thank you for taking the time this morning. We appreciate it.
Green: Happy to do it.
