If Not Now, Then When for the Internationals?

If I ever think about this Presidents Cup again, I suspect two thoughts will linger above all others.

The International squad really did just about everything right for the first three days. This was the culmination of a lot of hard work put in by Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman, Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Weir, and even a few bit players like Camilo Villegas. They have created a cohesive culture despite language barriers, despite having nothing to unify them beyond pride, and despite only playing together every other year (unlike the United States, which has the Ryder Cup). What Ogilvy and Immelman have done to get the team to this point is remarkable, and they have every right to feel extremely proud for getting to the point where the United States was ripe for an upset.

This was also — to be candid — probably their best shot.

Another one like it may never come.

It would be great for the event if it did, if this close call was one more brick in the road that leads to the promised land. Maybe when the Presidents Cup is contested at Kingston Heath in 2028. That would make for a great story. Adam Scott, someone who has been tortured by this event for half his life, could even take the reins as the captain and win on home soil. What a cool story that would be.

I’m just not convinced it will happen.

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The American side feels a bit like the kid in school who never studies, who walks through the hallways with unwarranted confidence, and the nerds can’t wait for the bill to eventually come due. Everyone predicts the moment is about to arrive when they will finally get their comeuppance. Then on test day, the slacker survives on talent and luck, and no lessons are ever learned.

That is essentially the Presidents Cup. It’s not fair, but that’s what talent does.

It was tough to see Ogilvy get a little emotional on the green in an interview with Golf Channel. You could tell how badly he wanted this, and how close it seemed. He made a great point about how the International team really doesn’t have a lot to bond it together besides their shared experiences. “It’s a bit of a brotherhood of people who had to travel all around the world to live out their dream of playing golf,” Ogilvy said.

Most of them were asked to put thousands of miles between themselves and their families to chase that dream, particularly as the PGA Tour became the center of the golf universe. The degree of difficulty is greater for them than the Americans. Immelman famously said in 2022 that he was tired of people viewing the International squad as “a joke,” and Ogilvy echoed that sentiment on Sunday.

“This is an incredible group of people, and it's not just the players here,” Ogilvy said. “The International team is a very big group of people, and they're very passionate about this team. They love the shield. They love this -- they love everything about this tournament and this team. Trevor's right; this team is no joke. We're coming, and when we crack this thing, it's going to get really good.”

If you were going to second-guess anything Ogilvy did, maybe you could spend some time on his decision to throw Corey Conners out early in singles. Conners got predictably creamed by Justin Thomas, and it helped the United States build the momentum it needed throughout the day. But Ogilvy had to play Conners — his worst putter by far — at some point in the lineup. You could argue his best chance to earn a point was actually against Thomas, who struggled mightily at times during this Presidents Cup.

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In the end, the Internationals needed their veterans to perform on Sunday, and it simply didn’t happen. Scott putted well against Patrick Cantlay but hit it poorly and lost, 2 and 1. Si Woo Kim was stunned by Jackson Koivun, 2 up. Hideki Matsuyama and Ryan Fox were mediocre in losses to Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele. The United States ended up winning 21 holes on the back nine, 11 with par. That swung the cup right there.

“It just felt like it was sort of right on a knife edge for a massive part of the day,” Ogilvy said. ”If you hole a couple of putts at the right time and get a bit more yellow on the board at the right time, the momentum, and the crowd sort of stays out of it a little bit. Just sort of started drifting away for us in the last few hours.”

I want to believe this will all pay off someday for the International side. They really did give it a hell of an effort, and pushed almost all the right buttons. But in the end, the cruelest and truest of golf lessons was reaffirmed.

It’s really hard to overcome a talent deficit.