How the International team can win the Presidents Cup

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On paper, the odds are stacked against the underdog International side at the 14th Presidents Cup. With an average age of 28.8, it’s the youngest group to compete in the history of the event. The average Official World Golf Ranking for the roster is 48.9, the highest number in the event’s history. Their opposition has 10 players ranked better currently than the International side’s leading man, Hideki Matsuyama. But three years ago at Royal Melbourne, facing similar pre-event numbers, the International side nearly pulled off one of the biggest upsets in team golf history. A record eight rookies will help fuel captain Trevor Immelman’s efforts to finish the job this week in Charlotte, and pick up the second win all-time for the International Team. Tom Kim As the third-youngest player ever to compete at the Presidents Cup, Tom Kim is inarguably one of the most exciting talents to watch this week in Charlotte. With his win at last month’s Wyndham Championship, the 20-year-old became the youngest PGA TOUR winner from outside the United States since Harry Cooper in 1923. Kim is literally trying to lead the International side to something he’s never seen in his lifetime: the only time they have won the Presidents Cup was in 1998, four years before Kim was born. Kim put on a ball-striking show this summer: from July 1 through the TOUR Championship, Kim ranked No. 2 among all qualified TOUR players in Strokes Gained: Approach per round (+1.15). In that same span, he ranks 10th in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and 14th in scoring average. Kim would have ranked in the top-20 on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total per round (+1.09) if he had enough rounds to officially qualify. Taylor Pendrith One of the only players on TOUR ahead of Kim in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking since the beginning of July is fellow International Team rookie Taylor Pendrith. The long-hitting Canadian ranked No. 4 overall on TOUR in that statistic from July through the TOUR Championship, the best of any player competing this week at Quail Hollow. Pendrith finished the 2022 season ranked inside the top-10 in both driving distance and greens in regulation. Former world No. 1 Jon Rahm is the only other player with that distinction last season. Mito Pereira The lofty ceiling of Mito Pereira’s immense talent was on full display earlier this year at the PGA Championship, when he got within one hole of becoming a major champion. Though the finish to that championship wasn’t what he wanted, the 27-year-old Chilean vaulted himself into the conversation as one of the potential future pillars of the International Team. His full 2022 statistical profile reveals a player with elite iron play: No. 9 on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach, 14th in greens in regulation and sixth in average proximity from the rough. Pereira finished the 2022 season ranked 19th on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total, the fifth-best position for any player without a win. Corey Conners As one of the most known commodities on the International roster, it’s easy to forget this is Corey Conners’ first Presidents Cup appearance. Since the beginning of 2019, Conners has been statistically among the best players in the game tee-to-green. In that span, he ranks fourth in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking, sixth in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and ninth in Strokes Gained: Approach. Conners is the only player on the PGA TOUR since 2019 to average at least +0.60 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and +0.60 Strokes Gained: Approach per round. Sebastián Muñoz There are only six players in PGA TOUR history to record multiple rounds of 60 or lower in their entire careers. In 2021-22, Sebastián Muñoz became the first player to record two such rounds in the same season, carding 60s at both The RSM Classic and AT&T Byron Nelson. Muñoz, who has qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs in each of the last four seasons, has been consistently solid for months now, making 15 of his last 17 cuts. In terms of sheer number of birdies made, Muñoz is one of the most prolific on TOUR in recent seasons. Over the last three years, only two players have recorded more birdies than Muñoz (1,070) – world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and teammate Sungjae Im. K.H. Lee Another player with a propensity for red numbers is K.H. Lee – who ranks 11th in total birdies made since the 2020 season. Earlier this year, Lee won the AT&T Byron Nelson at 26 under, one year after winning it with a score of 25 under. With the victory, Lee became the first player in TOUR history to win the same event in back-to-back years with a score of 25 under or better. At the 2021 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, Lee recorded four hole-outs from off the green, most of any player in the field. Can he rediscover that magic this week? Cam Davis Statistically, the defining line of when Cam Davis’ 2022 season turned around was Sunday at the RBC Heritage, when he shot a closing 63 to vault into a tie for third place. Heading to Harbour Town, Davis was ranked 178th on TOUR in scoring average and was outside the top 125 in both Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Strokes Gained: Total. He’s been a different player since then, though – from the RBC Heritage through the end of the PGA TOUR season, Davis had one missed cut and seven top-20s in 12 starts. In that span, he ranked top-30 on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking, Tee-to-Green and Total. Christiaan Bezuidenhout Coming off a season with 10 top-25s and just four missed cuts in 24 starts, Christiaan Bezuidenhout might be the best putter competing this week at Quail Hollow. He ranked sixth on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting per round for the 2022 season, the highest mark of any player on either team this week. When isolating the numbers just since the beginning of July, it’s even more impressive: from July 1 through the TOUR Championship, Bezuidenhout averaged 1.59 Strokes Gained: Putting per round, by far the best of any qualified player.

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LAS VEGAS — Rickie Fowler remembers his professional debut in Las Vegas like it was yesterday. It wasn’t. It was nine years ago that the flashy California kid made his first professional start at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open with huge expectations already heaped on his shoulders. Fowler was cool from the start. Flashy orange colors. Long locks. All of a sudden the younger generation had an idol closer to their age. Fast forward nine years and Fowler is back in Las Vegas this week now as a four-time PGA TOUR winner, including a PLAYERS Championship, and is an icon of the sport. He also has two European Tour wins, another in Asia and he won the Hero World Challenge last season, classed as an unofficial win. But would that 19-year-old Rickie be impressed by what 29-year-old Rickie has accomplished? “I’m definitely pleased with where I’m at,â€� Fowler said. “I don’t measure all my success just off winning. I feel like I’m having a positive impact on the game of golf and doing a lot of things away from golf to kind of help build a legacy in a way. 

“Yes, I want to win golf tournaments and majors, but there is so much more I want to do. Being able to leave my mark when the time is up, that’s not just about trophies. It’s just keep pushing, setting new goals, and see how far you can take it. Never settle.â€� Last season was a winless one for Fowler, but it featured two runner up finishes — including one at the Mayokoba Golf Classic, where he will play again next week and the other at The Masters. Despite an oblique muscle tear late in the season which saw him miss the opening two FedExCup Playoffs events, he closed with two top 10s at the BMW Championship and the TOUR Championship. Now he says he’s fully fit and ready to bank some FedExCup points over the next fortnight before getting some rest. “I don’t want to start January behind the eight ball too much,â€� Fowler said. “I feel good. I think when we were doing the media launch for the new driver with Cobra two weeks ago we started swinging hard at some drivers there. That was the first time I really let everything out; everything felt good.

 “I hadn’t really tried to stress it at all. I knew it was in a good spot. It wasn’t bothering me. But I hadn’t tried to really put stress on the area like that. Most of the time when you’re out playing tournament golf you’re swing 85, 90 percent. You never really try and go for the long drive swing.

 “Now I’m just going to see if we can take advantage of the next two weeks.â€� For the record, Fowler finished T7 in his debut in Vegas. He followed it up with a playoff loss at the Safeway Open a week later. Chances are he might better those numbers this week and next.

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