Winner: USA, 17.5-12.5
Around the wider world of golf: Atthaya Thitikul won the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship on the LPGA; Guido Migliozzi won the Cazoo Open de France on the DP World Tour; Steve Flesch won the PURE Insurance Championship on the Champions Tour; Britney Yada won the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout on the Epson Tour; Klara Spilkova won the KPMG Women’s Irish Open on the LET; Travis Smyth won the Yeangder TPC on the Asian Tour; and Mj Viljoen won the SunBet Challenge on the Sunshine Tour.
This week I did my Twofer Tuesday picks for both the LPGA and the PGA Tour, simply because picking the Presidents Cup was only a two-horse race. On the LPGA I had Lilia Vu (T16) and Megan Khang (T5), and I had the US Team to win the Presidents Cup. Not bad this week!
- Top10s: 27 for 99 (18 Top5, 9 Top10)
- Winners: 4 for 49
- Top20s: 43 for 99
The US Team's win over the International Team at the Presidents Cup surprised no one. After all, the Internationals were a huge underdog coming in, after Greg Norman and LIV plundered their team and had the nerve to send a totally insincere 'wish you well' to them as the week began.
The US pros did what we expected. Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Max Homa were the big point getters, with Spieth winning his first ever singles match (and posting the only 5-0-0 record) and Homa being only the fourth rookie to go 4-0-0 all-time. Xander Schauffele posted the winning point for the US. Every player got at least a half point.
But I feel that I need to spend some time on the Internationals in this post, simply because what the Internationals did was astounding.
We saw some players step up and possibly, like Scottie Scheffler at last year's Ryder Cup, change the trajectory of their careers. Sungjae Im, Si Woo Kim and Sebastian Muñoz fall into this category, with Kim and Muñoz taking down top US players JT and Scheffler, respectively, in the singles. Tom Kim is probably the breakout star of the event, especially coming on the heels of his victory at the Wyndham. All four Korean players posted at least 2 points each for the week, another first. And let's not forget that, after that horrible start in the first two days, the International Team actually outscored the US Team on the weekend (10.5 vs 9.5).
Their performance definitely bodes well for them going forward, and Captain Trevor Immelman can certainly feel good about the building he did on top of Ernie Els's efforts in the last Cup. With the experience all their rookies got this time, they definitely should be excited about what's coming down the road for them!
But to the winners go the spoils and that means a nice shiny Limerick Summary for the US Team. Thanks for adding to my winner total this week, guys!
That young International team
Hung tough in pursuit of their dream.
But the US hung tougher
With no plans to suffer
A loss. Are you sensing a theme?
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