Aussie trio automatic qualifiers for International Team

Australian trio Jason Day, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman are among the automatic qualifiers for the International Team to contest the Presidents Cup.

Japan’s world No 3 Hideki Matsuyama and Day, ranked No 9, are the team’s only players in the world top 10.

The team also includes South African trio Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace, Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas, Si Woo Kim of South Korea and Canadian Adam Hadwin.

Captain Nick Price will add two picks later this week with Hideto Tanihara, Emiliano Grillo, Yuta Ikeda, Byeong Hun An, Anirban Lahiri and Australian Scott Hend among the possible inclusions.

The United States have won nine of the 11 Presidents Cup matches, with one tie, and will be heavily favoured for victory when the 12th edition tees off on September 28 at Liberty National in New Jersey.

Meanwhile, Kevin Chappell made his first US Presidents Cup team by 0.073 of a point, and he needed a lot more help that he realised.

“I made it a lot more exciting than it needed to be,” Chappell said.

Chappell, who won his first PGA Tour event earlier this year in San Antonio, earned enough FedEx Cup points in Boston to secure the 10th and final automatic spot on the US team.

Charley Hoffman, who showed up at the TPC Boston at No 10 in the standings, closed with a 68 and tied for 40th. Chappell shot an even-par 71 to be tied for 35th and that was good enough. The other US qualifiers for the President Cup are Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Kevin Kisner, Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed.

Hoffman is a favourite to get one of captain Steve Stricker’s wild card picks and the other could go to Phil Mickelson, who has never missed a team event since 1994.