PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – There’s posters of Abraham Ancer all over El Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Course. He is the local hero this week, ranked 14th in the world and for the first time playing in his home country as a winner on the PGA TOUR – having captured the World Golf Championship-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in August. He’s also one of the favorites this week, thanks to three top-15 finishes in his last four starts in Mexico. The tight El Camaleon course, lined by penalty areas and thick mangroves, complements Ancer’s game well. He ranked in the top 10 in driving accuracy in both 2019 and 2021. A successful showing this week would carry extra weight, as the race is on for roster spots on Trevor Immelman’s International Presidents Cup team, which will face the United States on Sept. 20-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s a team Ancer desperately wants to be part of. “After I played in Melbourne (in 2019), I knew I wanted to be part of that team every time. I mean, it’s an unbelievable experience. You can’t really put into words what it feels like to play for a captain, a group of guys like that. It’s just extremely special,” said Ancer, who finished runner-up in this year’s Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow. “I’m going to bust my butt to make that team.” While Ancer already has Presidents Cup experience (he went 3-1-1 in 2019 and was arguably the Internationals’ MVP), countryman Carlos Ortiz – who will defend his first PGA TOUR title at next week’s Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open – is hoping to join Ancer on next year’s International Team. “One hundred percent, that’s one of my big goals,” said Ortiz, who finished T8 at Mayakoba last season. “I would love to play with a bunch of my friends (on the Presidents Cup). It’s just something I always looked forward to competing on and a lot of the work that I’m doing is to be part of that team.” While there’s been lots of talk about the American Ryder Cup team’s big victory at Whistling Straits, plenty of Internationals have not-so-quietly been making noise this fall. Sungjae Im, who matched Ancer’s 3.5 points at the 2019 Presidents Cup, won the Shriners Children’s Open last month. Then Hideki Matsuyama captured the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in his home country of Japan. And just last week, Lucas Hebert of Australia broke through for his maiden TOUR title at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Im is on top of the International Team standings, while Ancer is fourth, Matsuyama is fifth, and Hebert catapulted his way to No.14 in the standings after his win a week ago in Bermuda. And the solid results from the International hopefuls have caught the eye of one of Team USA’s big stars. “I think the International side is only getting better and better,” said Justin Thomas, who has been a part of the winning American team in each of the past two Presidents Cups. “It’s not like you look at the team lightly no matter who’s on the team, just because Team U.S. may have more accolades and wins put together. … You go put me against Sungjae Im and I know he’s going to be extremely difficult to beat. Same with Hideki, same with so many guys on their team.” And while Ancer is leading the Latin American charge, don’t be surprised to see Latin golfers make a solid impression on Immelman and his assistants at Quail Hollow. There’s Mito Pereria of Chile (who won three times in the most recent Korn Ferry Tour season), his countryman Joaquin Niemann, and multi-time TOUR winner Jhonattan Vegas of Venzeula as part of this core group. “We push each other, we motivate each other,” said Ancer of the Latin America crew. “We see somebody in our friend group obviously playing really well, it motivates us knowing that we can play the same or maybe even better, you know. I think it’s unbelievable. “I feel like we’ve got the firepower to have more Latin guys on that team and it would be so much fun.” Ancer ended up ninth on the FedExCup standings last season, and, at 30, is entering the prime of his career as both a player and ambassador for the sport in his home country. He alludes to the impact Lorena Ochoa had on golf in Mexico (Ochoa won 27 times on the LPGA Tour and ascended to No. 1 in the world – the first golfer of either gender from Mexico to get to that point) and how he’s trying to keep the torch lit. “I was speaking only about Mexico, but us as a whole and Latin America has been growing tremendously,” said Ancer. “It’s been fun and I can’t wait to grow that even more even little by little. I feel like we’ve done a great job, but we’ve got to do better.” And perhaps that growth will mean more of a Latin American presence on the Presidents Cup moving forward.
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