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It was only a month ago when we lost Pete Carril, arguably most notable as the men’s basketball coach at Princeton University for 30 years. Through his tenure into the mid-1990s, Carril deployed an offense that yielded low-scoring games and, therefore, more opportunities for victory. It demanded similar skill sets among the players and a higher floor of their weakest components to stay competitive. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | Schedule of Events | Nine Things to Know about Quail Hollow Club It also required commitment and discipline to play as a unit. Separate but connected. Chess, athletically. Depending on your perspective, it was either graceful and artistic or agonizing and boring to watch, but it was two things always – compelling and successful. Carril is enshrined in Halls of Fame, plural. The Presidents Cup has been a one-sided affair since it was introduced in 1994, so it might require the Internationals to steal pages out of Carril’s playbook. For how that can translates to golf, the format of the competition and more, continue reading below the full-field ranking of the participants. NOTE: In a match-play team competition consisting of five sessions over four days, only one of which is Singles on Sunday, and with matchups and momentum determined in real time, the ranking of the players below reflects projected impact on the event. INTERNATIONALS Rob’s prediction of the outcome will be included in a special Expert Picks on Tuesday. Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, hosts the 14th edition of the Presidents Cup. The U.S. leads the series all-time, 11-1-1. Given that record, it could be argued plainly that International team captain Trevor Immelman is in a position to lose, but it’s entirely the opposite. When history suggests that you have no chance, there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. For example, when Carril’s Princeton squad squared off against the defending national champion, UCLA, in the first round of 1996 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the Tigers were in the same position .., and they prevailed, 43-41. Forget style points, it’s all about the objective. For Immelman’s crew to join the 1998 team as Internationals to win the Presidents Cup, it will need to be a cohesive unit, plan meticulously in advance of every session, retain focus on every stroke and set whatever result aside to be ready for the next game. Play until the whistle blows because becoming legends of the competition is at the finish line. Regardless of par over time, Quail Hollow annually has been one of the most difficult courses on the PGA TOUR. It’s been a par 71 since the PGA Championship was contested there in 2017. It’s also among the longest tracks visited regularly. For the Presidents Cup, it will be able to stretch to 7,576 yards, but serious elasticity on a handful of holes will prevent that. Speaking of the flexible, the course has been rerouted to elevate the potential impact of The Green Mile. Traditionally holes 16, 17 and 18 for the Wells Fargo Championship, they have been shifted to play as Nos. 13, 14 and 15 for the Presidents Cup. It’s still a par-4-3-4 sequence, but now the signature stretch of the stage is all but promised to factor into the result of every match. Overall, holes 1-8 are the same as they are for the WFC, but Nos. 12-18 are Nos. 9-15 this week, so each is three sooner in the round than the familiar walk. Nos. 16, 17 and 18 for the Presidents Cup are Nos. 10, 11 and 9, respectively, for the WFC. Because of the challenge of the course proper, birdies will be good gets, even in Four-ball, so the Internationals should be encouraged to attempt to eliminate problems with safer and saner decisions. Elevate the floor of possibilities. Retain possession of the ball, work the clock, be more patient and let the hosts make mistakes. Of course, United States captain Davis Love III is no stranger to anything inside the ropes, so he’ll be opposing with a front line worthy of keeping the trophy for the ninth consecutive time. He also has the luxury of natural combinations for Foursomes and Four-ball, whereas Immelman is saddled with language barriers for even basic messaging. However, and this goes for all, golf is golf no matter the nationality. Like you, Mother Nature also wants to kick back and watch. Largely favorable conditions are forecast throughout the four-day competition. After a sweltering launch in mid-90s heat for Foursomes on Thursday, it will cool into the 70s for Friday’s Four-ball. Wind could be an influencer on either day. Gradual heating will occur on Saturday for Foursomes in the morning and Four-ball in the afternoon, with another bump into the mid-80s poised for Sunday’s Singles. Rain is not expected at any time. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & Fades WEDNESDAY: Pick ’Em Preview SUNDAY: Medical Extensions, Qualifiers, Reshuffle

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Adam Scott had been a part of six International Teams without a victory in the Presidents Cup before he felt he just had to say something. Aside from the drawn effort in his debut in South African in 2003, they had all been losing teams. As a senior member of the playing force heading to Korea in 2015 Scott went to captain Nick Price with an idea, a request … it was almost an insistence. “We had to come together better as a group, earlier in the week,â€� Scott explains. “By the end of the tournament we always become the best of mates and want to go out and play it all over again. Unfortunately, we had already lost.â€� It is the stuff of legend that the International Team closing party is perhaps more fun than their winning American counterparts. Over the years, U.S. Team members have been known to slip out of their own celebrations and head over to the losing sides soiree. Realizing the connections that were forging should have been helping them play better earlier in the week, Scott went to Price and asked for the opening Monday of the week to have a greater purpose. A bonding session. If we want to beat an American team, who are always 12 unbelievably good players, you have to be all in and all playing for each other. And so, on that Monday in Korea the extended team of caddies and players and assistants and everyone involved got together in the evening. “I felt strongly about a few things and I said to Nick I think it is really important we have a fun evening when we get there on Monday. Don’t just say you’re free to go to bed – make people want to stay,â€� Scott recalls. “We had to make it fun. Let’s have some speeches, get a comedian, get a magician if you have to, do whatever it takes to get everyone jacked up about the week as a unit early.â€� The notion might seem trivial. Particularly if you’re American. But remember, the U.S. Team members play on the PGA TOUR together. They all see each other a lot and practice together. They usually team up in the Ryder Cup. They are already a solid unit playing under one flag. The International Team is made up of multiple countries and cultures. Some, like Australia and South Africa (who make up the clear majority of the International Team most years) are arch enemies on the sporting fields in popular sports like rugby and cricket. It is not natural to come together without some effort. Then, of course, the Asian and South American countries have different cultures as well and sometimes there is a language barrier. It can be easy to leave someone feeling like they’re on the outside … not quite part of the inner circle. “Sometimes too much is made of the golf side of things, the statistics and the foursomes and the pairings and all that,â€� former player and now assistant captain Geoff Ogilvy says. “I just think that team feel ‑‑ do you want to win for your teammates more than the other team want to win for their teammates – that’s the key. “It’s the guys that come together best as a team that usually thrive, and that’s a harder deal for the internationals, so that’s really the big challenge for us.â€� Perhaps Europe’s Ryder Cup squads are the model. The bond in some of those sides has appeared beyond unbreakable. You can see the cohesiveness and togetherness. On paper, they looked like they were going to lose every time, but when it came down to playing, it just looked like there was something extra there. “It’s like, wow, the whole is greater than the combined pieces,â€� Ogilvy adds. Scott says a big reason why the core of the team campaigned to have Price back for a third time as captain as he did create the best team vibe they’ve had in recent times. And they are confident they can build further on it. “Nick had done a great job getting guys individually excited to be there but once we were all in the room, we had to solidify the team passion,â€� Scott continues. “We may not have quite locked the doors but the entire extended unit certainly bonded that night and it was a great way to start the week. “It was really evident after the last few cups before that how tight knit we were across the entire team, not just the players. “If we want to beat an American team, who are always 12 unbelievably good players, you have to be all in and all playing for each other.â€� Of course, history shows the International Team still lost the Presidents Cup in 2015 but this time it was just by a single point. They were perhaps a Sang-moon Bae flubbed chip away from a historic win on Sunday. Quite an improvement considering they’d lost by three or more points in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013. And so the bonding session will once again be implemented at Liberty National in New Jersey later this year. Potential rookies like PLAYERS Championship winner Si Woo Kim, Emiliano Grillo, Hideto Tanihara, Adam Hadwin, Byeong Hun An, Yuta Ikeda or Cameron Smith will be immediately welcomed into the fold. “I want everyone in here ready to go early. Getting the rookies and young guys familiar with how the whole week works because once the bell rings Thursday it just goes by in a flash,â€� Price confirmed while doing a reconnaissance mission with his assistant captains earlier this week. “We all know each other but we don’t really know each other. Younger guys know Ernie Els but they’ve never sat down and had lunch with Ernie, or with me for that matter, and there can be a little bit of intimidation – they don’t know where their place is. “So the whole idea is to make them feel they have a place, they’ve earned their place here and that they are part of this group that is made up of the players, the caddies, the wives, the support staff – everyone. Even though you are out there on your own there are 50 people on the sideline pulling hard for you.â€�

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Martin Laird lost a chance to win by making bogey on the 18th hole, only to redeem himself in a three-way playoff by making a 20-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole Sunday to win the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. RELATED: Final leaderboard | What’s in Laird’s bag? Laird ended seven years without a victory in a year filled with so much doubt, which included knee surgery right about the time golf was set to resume from the COVID-19 pandemic. The 37-year-old Scot suddenly is flying high. He needed a sponsor exemption to play the tournament he won in 2009. He ended it with a birdie to beat Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook. It was the third three-man playoff in Las Vegas for Laird, who won in 2009 and lost the following year when Jonathan Byrd made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole at the TPC Summerlin. Laird contributed a pair of big shots on the par 3. He had a one-shot lead with two holes to play Sunday when he sent his tee shot on the par-3 17th off a cart path and some 30 yards right of the green with the pin to the right. He hit a chip-and-run over the cart path, under the trees, between a pair of bunkers and then made a most improbable par with an 18-foot putt. But he missed the green to the right on the 18th and chipped to 30 feet, two-putting for bogey and a 3-under 68 to fall into a playoff at 23-under 261 with Wolff and Cook, who each closed with a 66. They all made par on the 18th in the playoff, and then Laird ended it on the 17th with his birdie. Laird, at No. 358 in the world, becomes the third winner in the last four regular PGA TOUR events to be ranked outside the top 300. Now he has a two-year exemption and stands at No. 4 in the FedExCup standings. Laird appeared to have everything going his way when he caught a buried lie near the lip of a bunker while facing a front pin on the par-5 ninth. He blasted away, turned his head and looked back to see the superb shot trickle into the cup for eagle. That gave him a three-shot lead heading to the back nine. But he couldn’t hold it. Cook never really went away, closing within one shot with a 40-foot birdie putt on the 17th and burning the edge of the cup on his birdie attempt on the closing hole. Wolff was never far away and arrived in a powerful burst with a two-putt birdie on the reachable par-4 15th, blasting a 375-yard drive on the par-5 16th and stuffing wedge to 10 feet for eagle. Laird never lost the lead, though he was grinding to the finish line. He had to make a 15-foot birdie putt on the 15th, the easiest hole at TPC Summerlin. He played away from the flag and water on the par-5 16th to 70 feet and came up 15 feet short, leading to a three-putt par. And then he made his great escape on the 17th after a tee shot off the cart path. A par on the 18th was all he needed for the victory, and he hung it out to the right, down to a collection area with a drain a yard in front of his ball. Patrick Cantlay, who shared the 54-hole lead with Laird, was the biggest surprise of the day. Cantlay won the tournament in 2017 and was runner-up each of the last two years. Fourteen of his 15 rounds at the TPC Summerlin were under par. He opened with four bogeys in six holes and didn’t make birdie until the 13th, closing with a 73. Bryson DeChambeau closed with a 66, and that was the worst he could have done. With a helping wind, he played the par 5s on the back nine in 1 over. He also bogeyed the last from a bunker. Abraham Ancer birdied the last two holes for a 67 to finish alone in fourth. Will Zalatoris closed with a 69 for a three-way tie for fifth, leaving him just short of enough FedExCup points to earn special temporary membership on the PGA TOUR. His next chance is in three weeks in Bermuda.

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