Internationals could spring upset
INTERNATIONAL team captain Nick Price believes his “hodgepodge” band have the talent, and the fire, needed to prevent the United States from winning a seventh straight Presidents Cup this week.
The biennial match play event between the USA and a team drawn from around the world tees off today at the Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey.
The United States have won nine of 11 prior editions of the event, with one tie and just one International victory, in 1998 in Melbourne.
But Price said the one-point defeat two years ago in Incheon, South Korea, was a shot in the arm for players like Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Day.
“Even though we’re a hodgepodge of a team from all around the world, we are all competitors,” Price said of a team that this year draws from eight nations.
“We like to compete, and we don’t like to get beaten.”
In addition to veterans like Australia’s Scott and Day and South Africa’s Oosthuizen, the Internationals have four debutants in Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo, Canadian Adam Hadwin, Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas and South Korean Kim Si-woo.
Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama is the highest ranked international, at No 3 in the world.
At 25, he is making a third Presidents Cup appearance.
“This team is made up of a lot of young guys who probably have another four or five Presidents Cups in them,” Price said.
“I think they have realised how important this event is, and they want to take it to the next level.”
It will be a daunting task against a US side featuring world No 1 Dustin Johnson and second-ranked Jordan Spieth. World No 4 Justin Thomas has five wins this season, including his first major at the PGA Championship, and locked up the $10-million (R135.7-million) FedEx Cup playoff bonus.
World No 8 Rickie Fowler boasts a tour win this year and Brooks Koepka broke through for his first major title at the US Open.
Still, Fowler said, “we’ve got our work cut out for us”.
“We’ve had a lot of success this year top to bottom. But it all comes down to this week,” Fowler said.
While Price has four Presidents Cup rookies on his team, US captain Steve Stricker has six.
Five-time major winner Phil Mickelson, the only player to compete in every Presidents Cup, lends a veteran presence, and said the Americans needed to keep the pressure on.
“If you look at the talent on the International team, it is strong and it is deep,” he said. – AFP