In the aftermath of the NHL-NHLPA decision, here’s who could make the teams, and what countries have emerged as the new favorites.
Thursday’s scheduled game between the Nets and Trail Blazers has been postponed, as the NBA announced that Brooklyn does not have the required eight players available for the contest.
The U.S. Team rallied on the final day of the previous Presidents Cup to avoid an upset on a Royal Melbourne layout that was a mystery to most of its roster. Now the biennial competition between the U.S. and International teams returns to more familiar territory. Next year’s Presidents Cup will be held at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club, the annual venue for the Wells Fargo Championship (the 2022 Wells Fargo will be played at TPC Potomac in Avenel, Maryland, to allow Quail Hollow to prepare for the Presidents Cup). Davis Love III, a University of North Carolina alum, will helm the U.S. Team after leading two Ryder Cup squads. His 2012 team rolled through the opening two days before Europe staged an historic upset in Singles, known as the Miracle at Medinah, to score a road victory. Love’s 2016 team ensured that history didn’t repeat itself, winning 17-11 at Minnesota’s Hazeltine Golf Club. Love also was a vice captain at this year’s Ryder Cup, giving him a front-row seat to watch the young talent that will undoubtedly form the core of his squad. He’s obviously excited to lead a team coming off a record Ryder Cup win. Love’s team will be comprised of the top six players in the U.S. points standings after the 2022 BMW Championship. Players have been accumulating points in the Presidents Cup standings since the opening event of the 2020 season. Every FedExCup point earned during that campaign is worth a half-point in the Presidents Cup standings. FedExCup points earned in 2020-21 are worth one point, and each FedExCup point earned this season is worth three. (For the Presidents Cup standings, FedExCup Playoffs events are weighted the same as World Golf Championships.) Love also will have six captain’s picks to round out the squad, giving him plenty of roster flexibility. To help you prepare for the upcoming Presidents Cup, here are a dozen names to consider for the next U.S. squad. This is supposed to be a fun exercise so don’t yell and scream because your favorite player wasn’t included (players are listed in alphabetical order). Sam Burns Age: 25 Previous Presidents Cups: 0 Current Presidents Cup ranking: 2 Burns narrowly missed out on a spot on this year’s Ryder Cup team after a breakout season that included his first win, at the Valspar Championship, and his first TOUR Championship appearance. How’d Burns respond to his Ryder Cup near-miss? By winning his next start, the Sanderson Farms Championship, and contending in his next two events. Burns’ worst finish in four starts this fall is T14; he finished seventh or better in three of those events. Injuries earlier in his TOUR career slowed his progress, but he’s fulfilling the lofty expectations that came after he was college golf’s player of the year in 2017, finished in the top-10 of a TOUR event while still an amateur and beat Tiger Woods while playing alongside the legend in the final round of the 2018 Honda Classic. Patrick Cantlay Age: 29 Previous Presidents Cups: 1 (2019) Current Presidents Cup ranking: 8 Coming off a four-win season, it seems assured that the reigning FedExCup champion will be on the roster at Quail Hollow. His well-rounded game – he ranked in the top 30 of all four Strokes Gained categories last season – makes him an ideal partner in any format. He went 3-0-1 at Whistling Straits this year – extending his individual record in international team events to 6-2-1 — and his bromance with Xander Schauffele guarantees he already has a partner queued up for Quail Hollow. Bryson DeChambeau Age: 28 Previous Presidents Cups: 1 (2019) Current Presidents Cup ranking: 7 His driver produced some of the most memorable shots from this most recent Ryder Cup. There was the 417-yard blast that left him just a wedge into one par-5 and he drove the first green in his Singles win over Sergio Garcia. He’s been driving for show (and dough) since his radical transformation before the previous Presidents Cup, leading the PGA TOUR in driving distance and Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in each of the past two seasons while also ranking in the top 20 of Strokes Gained: Putting each season. Quail Hollow can reward the big bomber. Look at Rory McIlroy’s success there. DeChambeau finished T9 in this year’s Wells Fargo Championship despite flying home to Dallas after thinking he missed the cut. A pair of 68s on the weekend moved him from the cut line and into the top 10. Dustin Johnson Age: 37 Previous Presidents Cups: 4 (2011, 2015, 2017, 2019) Current Presidents Cup ranking: 13 This year’s Ryder Cup was the first since 1993 in which neither Phil Mickelson or Woods competed, leaving Johnson as the elder statesman of the American squad. It’s a quiet leadership, but one that his teammates respect. His record speaks for itself: Twenty-four PGA TOUR wins, including two majors and a FedExCup. And his best performance in one of these intercontinental tussles came in the most recent one. He was the oldest member of this year’s Ryder Cup team (by a decent margin) but also the only one to go 5-0-0. He formed a strong partnership with a player more than a decade younger than him, Collin Morikawa. “He’s the oldest guy on our team, and it’s a very quiet leadership, but he makes his presence known,” Morikawa said. It’s hard to imagine an American team without Johnson, especially after what he did this year at Whistling Straits. Phil Mickelson Age: 51 Previous Presidents Cups: 12 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) Current President Cup ranking: 59 Look, it’s a longshot. We know it. Phil knows it. But it’s a thought worth entertaining. He readily admits that he needs to play better. But outside Augusta National and Pebble Beach, there may not be another course that elicits more excitement from Mickelson. He has 10 top-10s in 16 starts in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. Even this year, he shot a first-round 64 that provided a glimpse of what was to come in his next start, his record-setting win at the PGA Championship. Dominant PGA TOUR Champions seasons from both Hale Irwin and Bernhard Langer led some to call for inclusion on their respective Ryder Cup teams. Mickelson could do something similar, having won four of six starts on that circuit. He relished being a vice captain in this year’s Ryder Cup – his banter on the radios was reportedly legendary – but his tenure as a playing member of the U.S. teams came to an unceremonious end in the United States’ loss at the 2018 Ryder Cup, where Mickelson went 0-2. Playing on this team could allow him to end on a winning note. Collin Morikawa Age: 24 Previous Presidents Cups: 0 Current Presidents Cup ranking: 1 He’s 24 years old and already owns two major championships. In an era obsessed with distance, Morikawa gets it done with the best iron play on TOUR. He acquitted himself nicely in this year’s Ryder Cup, his first time representing the U.S. in an international team competition as a pro. He went 3-0 with Dustin Johnson – winning twice in Foursomes and once in Four-balls – before securing the clinching point by doing what he does best, hitting his 221-yard tee shot to 3 feet on the par-3 17th. After Morikawa snatched the Claret Jug, Ryder Cup and Race to Dubai trophy in 2021, Europe may want to lock up the Champions League trophy and perhaps even the Magna Carta, lest he run off with those prizes as well. Scottie Scheffler Age: 25 Previous Presidents Cups: 0 Current Presidents Cup ranking: 6 Beating the World No. 1 in Singles automatically earns you an exemption onto the next U.S. Team, right? Scheffler was DeChambeau’s right-hand man in this year’s Ryder Cup before blitzing Jon Rahm in Singles. Scheffler, the 2020 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, is still seeking his first win but the way he handled Rahm definitely counts for something. Scheffler birdied the first four holes en route to a 4-and-3 victory. This season is off to a strong start, with a fourth-place finish at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba and a T2 at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open. The fact that he’s finished in the top 20 in his last six majors – including four finishes of eighth or better – show that his game is suited for the biggest stages. Webb Simpson Age: 37 Previous Presidents Cups: 3 (2011, 2013, 2019) Current Presidents Cup ranking: 19 Charlotte’s favorite son — Simpson lives on Quail Hollow – is a good bet to get a captain’s pick if he’s on the bubble for this team. He almost earned one for this year’s Ryder Cup team despite seeing a streak of four consecutive TOUR Championship berths come to an end. It was a difficult season for Simpson, who’d become a top-10 player in the world during his career resurgence. There was a COVID diagnosis and a neck injury that forced him to withdraw from the Wells Fargo. He finished the fall with a T8 at The RSM Classic that showed positive signs. He gained nearly 10 strokes with his approach play, more than three strokes ahead of Talor Gooch, who won the event and finished second to Simpson in that stat. Simpson is a model teammate who’s respected by his peers, which is why he was on the short list of potential captain’s picks for this year’s Ryder Cup. Morikawa said at this year’s Olympics that tries to emulate Simpson’s balance of on- and off-course responsibilities, and he’s not alone in expressing that sentiment. Simpson still is one of the best players on TOUR from the approach shot in. Pair him with a long hitter and you have a formidable Foursomes pairing. And Simpson’s ability to make birdies in bunches pays off in Four-balls. Jordan Spieth Age: 28 Previous Presidents Cups: 3 (2013, 2015, 2017) Current Presidents Cup ranking: 18 It’s the smallest of samples – just four rounds – but Spieth’s performance in his lone start of the fall could portend a successful season. He gained more than four strokes off the tee on the wide-open fairways of Summit Club, where he finished T18 in THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT. He was off the rest of the fall as he awaited the birth of his first child. The driver is the one club that still needs work. It’s trending in the right direction, though. Last year, he was just a tick below average in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, his best performance in that stat since 2018. As we know, Spieth doesn’t need to drive it on a string to succeed. He just needs to keep it on the planet. Spieth is a stalwart of these U.S. teams, and the plug-and-play partnership with Thomas adds a boost to his candidacy should he need a captain’s pick. Justin Thomas Age: 29 Previous Presidents Cups: 2 (2017, 2019) Current Presidents Cup ranking: 3 This Presidents Cup gives Thomas an opportunity to return to the site of his 2017 PGA Championship win, and a chance to play for the captain he’s known since college. Thomas was teammates at Alabama with Love’s son, Dru. Thomas is 6-2-2 in his two Presidents Cup appearances and has become the United States’ biggest on-course catalyst, doubling as one of its best players and its most vocal competitor. He and Spieth have proven to be more than good friends, as well. They’ve formed a formidable pairing, going 4-2-0 together in Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup play. Having one of the best iron players in the game on your team is always an asset, as well. The reigning PLAYERS champion has ranked no worse than sixth in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green in each of the last five seasons. Matthew Wolff Age: 23 Previous Presidents Cups: 0 Current Presidents Cup ranking: 11 Matthew Wolff has become the poster child for mental health awareness after his leave of absence last season. He’s started an important conversation, but let’s not also forget that he’s also one of the most promising prospects in the game. Stepping away helped him learn how to cope with the pressures of stardom, and a late-night adjustment to his setup before the Sanderson Farms Championship has unleashed his unique, powerful action once again. Wolff had the best resume when he turned pro alongside Morikawa and Viktor Hovland and was the first to win, becoming the just the third player to win an NCAA individual title and PGA TOUR event in the same year (Tiger Woods and Ben Crenshaw are the others). He finished in the top 4 in his first two majors and reached as high as 12th in the world ranking. The pressure got to Wolff last season, but he showed wisdom in deciding to step away. His enthusiasm for the game has returned and it showed with back-to-back top-5 finishes this fall. That run started at the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he was thinking about his swing while in bed and realized that his setup was off. “From that point on I’ve just been rolling,” he said. Tiger Woods Age: 45 Previous Presidents Cups: 9 (1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2019) Current Presidents Cup ranking: 118 What will Tiger Woods’ role be at next year’s Presidents Cup? That’s for Tiger Woods to decide. Love said he’d even step aside as captain if Woods requested to lead the team for a second consecutive Cup. According to Love, Woods was in consideration to return as captain but turned down the role to focus on his playing career. If Woods can walk 18 holes, there’s a chance he’ll be on this team. Perhaps as a playing vice captain. It’s been a difficult road to recovery and Woods loves the camaraderie of these team events. Even if he can only play one Foursomes match and Singles, his appearance on the roster would mean so much to Tiger, his teammates and the event. Look to 2011 as something of a precedent for Tiger making a team as a part-time player. Woods was inconsistent during just nine starts in that injury-interrupted year. He didn’t have a top-10 after the Masters but was still picked for the team and scored the clinching point for the U.S. Team at Royal Melbourne. And if he can’t play? Woods has shown his passion for playing any role he can in these team events, so it would be no surprise to see him assisting Love, just as he did at the Ryder Cup five years ago.
A new year is almost here, and that means it’s time to turn our focus forward. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of names to watch in 2022. We didn’t just include the stars, like FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay, World No. 1 Jon Rahm or all-around wunderkind Collin Morikawa. We also picked players from a variety of levels – PGA TOUR Champions, the Korn Ferry Tour and collegiate golf – to give you a well-rounded look at some of the players we think will have an impact on their respective circuits in 2022. Enjoy. 1. PATRICK CANTLAY The greatest result out of the 2021 season for Patrick Cantlay was arguably NOT the incredible flourish to claim the FedExCup – the culmination of a four-win campaign — but instead the solidification of some popularity with fans and his new nickname, Patty Ice. One of the greatest attributes a professional golfer can yield is the ability to close in the face of pressure. The ability to project a calmness in the storm and produce quality shots when it really counts is a feature of the truly elite. But as crisp as his ball-striking was, Cantlay hadn’t captured the attention of the fans until his Playoff campaign. The 29-year-old has always been on the radar of the hardcore golf fan – he was a standout in college and always had the word ‘potential’ attached to him. But now, after a circuitous route, he is on the precipice of being the best player in the world and has the chance to be the first back-to-back FedExCup champ in history. If he makes either climb with the new target on his back, his evolution into Patty Ice will be complete. “He really appreciated that the fans got behind him,” Matt Minister, Cantlay’s longtime caddie said. “Because up until last week (at the BMW), everybody else was being cheered for, and then they really started cheering for him. That’s what made the difference, that they got behind him.” 2. JON RAHM It seems foolish to make predictions given the state of the world, but here’s one: Jon Rahm will contend at the 2022 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. This, after all, is the tournament he won in 2020 and was poised to win again in ’21 – a six-shot lead with one round to go – until he was forced to WD with a positive COVID test. Beyond his affinity for Muirfield Village, who knows? The sky is the limit for the six-time TOUR winner who turned 27 last month. Consider: Rahm dazzled in ’21, capturing his first major with birdies on 17 and 18 at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, despite twice being torpedoed by a positive COVID test (he also missed the Tokyo Olympics). He played for a European Ryder Cup team that wound up on the wrong side of a historically lopsided score (19-9), and yet was the last guy the Americans wanted to play, going 3-1-1. Meanwhile, Rahm was racking up top-10 finishes in 15 of his 22 starts, and with wife Kelley bringing a son, Kepa, into the world. Oh, and he also grew into his role as the game’s No. 1 and consoled friend Tony Finau upon the latter’s playoff loss at The Genesis Invitational. Jon Rahm has become a man in full. – Cameron Morfit 3. JORDAN SPIETH Fully fledged comeback… false dawn… or a new normal somewhere in between? The jury is somewhat out on Jordan Spieth despite the fact we all rejoiced when he snapped his near four-year win drought in 2021. What will we see in 2022? The fact is there is something intangible around Spieth that makes it impossible for us to look away. When he struggles, we can’t avert our gaze. When he has success, we feel like we’re on the ride with him. We feel the fist pumps, revel in the ‘go get that’ moments, and generally love life more when he’s smiling. Spieth is a relatable character to most of us. And he’ll begin 2022 with a new title: Dad. The 28-year-old joined wife Annie in welcoming baby Sammy in November, and it might just be the catalyst for the 12-time TOUR winner to get back to his best. If the perspective that generally comes with fatherhood allows Spieth to free up his mind and just play the game he loves with a free spirit, then perhaps seeing his name near the top of leaderboards will be the constant it was for the first five years or so of his career. 4. COLLIN MORIKAWA Collin Morikawa could not be contained. He had shot 68-66-64 to build a five-shot lead at the unofficial Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. With a win, he would seize the No. 1 world ranking in just his 61st start as a pro (only Tiger Woods got there faster). Alas, two double-bogeys in a span of three holes Sunday brought the field back in, Morikawa shot 76, and his housemate for the week, Viktor Hovland, won the trophy. It was a rare reminder that Morikawa, 24, is human. We are coming to the end of a year in which he captured the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession (becoming the only player other than Tiger to win a major and WGC before turning 25), Open Championship (his second major), and DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, that victory making him the first American to win the Race to Dubai. Only a strained muscle in his lower back, which he suffered in the first round of the Olympics in Tokyo, kept him from having a better year as he scuffled to a T26 at the TOUR Championship. No matter. He bounced back with a dominant performance, largely with partner Dustin Johnson, in crushing the Europeans at the Ryder Cup, then won again in Dubai. This looks like the start of an epic career. – Cameron Morfit 5. RORY McILROY The good: He won the Wells Fargo Championship in the spring, the first time he’d won the same TOUR event three times, and THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT in the fall. The bad: McIlroy battled inconsistency amid a coaching change and his efforts to gain yardage. He cried at the end of a lopsided loss for Europe at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. The good: McIlroy is back to his coach since boyhood, Michael Bannon. The bad: He had one hand on the trophy at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai before a bad break – his approach shot clanking off the pin and into a bunker at the 15th hole – sent him into a tailspin. The former world No. 1 is still searching for his consistency from 2019, when his TOUR-leading 14 top-10 finishes in 19 starts, and three victories, yielded his second FedExCup . “Just being me is good enough,” he said after winning THE CJ CUP, “and maybe the last few months I was trying – not to be someone else, but maybe trying to add things to my game or take things away from my game. I know that when I do the things that I do well … I’m capable of winning a lot of events on the PGA TOUR and being the best player in the world.” Could this bit of self-awareness make him the first three-time winner in the FedExCup’s history? – Cameron Morfit 6. PHIL MICKELSON Phil Mickelson is coming off a tale of two seasons. He’s not sure what 2022 will look like. “A lot of things are up in the air,” he said at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club in November, when he shot a final-round 65 to join Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win four of their first six PGA TOUR Champions starts. “I know I’m going to play a decent amount. I just don’t know when and where.” On TOUR, Mickelson, 51, won the PGA Championship, becoming the oldest men’s major winner. It was a shocker, given his lack of form. His win at Kiawah was his only top-10 of the season. At the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he’d won five times, he shot a second-round 80 to miss the cut. He opened with 75s at the Masters and U.S. Open, missed the cut at The Open, finished 70th in the FedExCup. But all that matters in the history books is his performance that one week at Kiawah Island. So, which tour will he play next year? We’ll have to wait and see. “I’m hoping to use the opportunity to play and compete here as a way to keep my game sharp and have a few special moments on the regular TOUR like I had this year in May,” he said at the Schwab. “If I could have a couple more of those, that’s really what motivates me to work hard, to get in the gym in the offseason, put in the time and the effort to have those special moments.” – Cameron Morfit 7. SAM BURNS A freak injury slowed his progress, but Burns is back to fulfilling the lofty expectations that came after he played alongside – and beat – Tiger Woods in the final round of the 2018 Honda Classic. Burns, who won the Jack Nicklaus Award as college golf’s top player in 2017, broke his ankle in the summer of 2019 while playing pickup basketball with kids in his neighborhood. He admits that he came back too soon from the injury, and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But Burns, 25, is back on track after two victories in 2021 (Valspar Championship, Sanderson Farms Championship). He’ll enter 2022 ranked second in the FedExCup after finishing no worse than T14 in four fall starts. He’s also on the cusp of the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking. And he did it with a putter that was below his usual standard, which means that regression to the mean could mean good things for Burns in the next calendar year. Burns, who ranked in the top 30 in Strokes Gained: Putting in each of his first three full seasons is only ranked 96th in that metric in this nascent season. His iron play continues to improve, however. He was a career-best 30th in Strokes Gained: Approach last season and is fourth this season. In other words, all signs are pointing toward a big year for Burns. – Sean Martin 8. HIDEKI MATSUYAMA With great power comes great responsibility. Hideki Matsuyama’s 2021 was by most measures – probably all measures except his own lofty standards – a sensational year. He became the first Japanese man to win a major championship with his historic victory at the Masters, and then was able to push the celebration further with victory in his home country at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. While it’s true he narrowly missed out on an Olympic medal in front of the same faithful, the fact is Matsuyama will always be able to reflect back with some warm fuzzy feelings. But his success now raises expectations. And there is one field of battle this superstar needs to conquer – the Presidents Cup. Age and language barriers have allowed Matsuyama to get away with being a background player for the International Team on the four times he has suited up for the squad. But come Quail Hollow in 2022, he must stand up and be a leader for Trevor Immelman’s team. It’s time for Matsuyama to take a heavy ownership load with the squad and be the catalyst behind what would be an almighty upset. His 6-7-4 record in the competition isn’t terrible considering he’s been on four losing teams but it absolutely needs to be better for him to be part of something else historic. – Ben Everill 9. PIERCESON COODY The grandson of a Masters champion, Pierceson Coody has benefitted from both the wisdom of a man who competed against Nicklaus and Palmer and the expertise of the scientifically-minded coach who helped Bryson DeChambeau reach new heights. Charles Coody won the 1971 Masters by two strokes over Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller. His twin grandsons, Pierceson and Parker, are seniors on this season’s strong University of Texas team. The Coody boys have been trained since they were young by Chris Como, refining their game at the same biomechanics lab in Como’s living room that DeChambeau used for his incredible distance gains. Pierceson became the No. 1 amateur in the world in April, thanks in part to a win at the prestigious Western Amateur. “All you’ve got to do is believe in yourself,” Charles recalls telling Pierceson. Simple, but sage, advice. Pierceson is currently second in PGA TOUR University, which would earn him Korn Ferry Tour status when he (presumably) turns pro this summer. For those who enjoy following golf’s promising prospects, he’s one to watch. – Sean Martin 10. DAVIS THOMPSON The Jones Cup has a pretty good track record of predicting PGA TOUR success. If that’s the case, then Davis Thompson has a promising future ahead of him. Past champions of the amateur event in Sea Island, Georgia, include PGA TOUR winners Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Corey Conners, Kyle Stanley and D.J. Trahan (Jordan Spieth also lost a sudden-death playoff). The tournament’s host venue, Ocean Forest, is a demanding layout and the tournament falls in the dead of winter on the Atlantic coast, requiring players to brave cold temperatures and strong winds if they want to win the title. It takes a big-boy game to compete in the Jones Cup. But of all the future stars who played in the event, none have performed better than Thompson at Ocean Forest. One year after losing a sudden-death playoff, he won the tournament by nine shots and set the event’s scoring record in his 2020 victory. It’s why one observer said Thompson has the most TOUR-ready game among this year’s crop of new pros. Thompson, who finished T23 in the 2019 RSM Classic while still an amateur, also was the early leader after a hot start to the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot and shot a first-round 63 in this year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic. He made the cut in five of eight PGA TOUR starts in this calendar year. Thompson, who turned pro after representing the United States in this year’s Walker Cup, was second in the 2021 PGA TOUR University standings and has eight guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2022 after finishing in the top 40 at Q-School. – Sean Martin
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