Presidents Cup

Today is the first rounds of the 2009 Presidents Cup, which is being played outside of San Francisco at Harding Park Golf Club. For those of you who are asking, “wait, didn’t they play the Ryder Cup last year?” Good question, the Ryder Cup is played every other year between the US team and the European team. The Presidents Cup is a matchup between the US team and an International team that is comprised of players that aren’t from Europe or the USA. So, you have guys that are from Australia, Argentina, South Africa, Japan, Fiji, Columbia, Korea and Canada. Click here for a list of the American players and here for a list of the International players.

All of the players on the two teams had to earn their spot through a points system or were named as captains’ pick. The captains this year are Fred Couples for Team USA and Greg Norman for the International team. This format of the matches is different from the usual PGA tournament. All of the rounds are match play rounds which means the winner of the hole gets a point, no mater how many strokes the hole was won by. The matches on Thursday and Friday are foursome matches while the matches on Saturday and Sunday are individual one on one singles matches. The team to reach 17.5 points wins the Presidents Cup and the bragging rights for two years. There is no prize money awarded at the Presidents Cup. The net proceeds are distributed to charities nominated by the players, captains, and captains' assistants. This is for pride and not the almighty dollar!

The US team has won 3 out of the last 4 Presidents Cup and I am predicting another win this weekend. In looking at the teams on paper, the US team is much stronger, but anything can happen on the course. It is going to be fun to watch since the players tend to show a lot more emotion in competition like this. TV coverage for the Presidents Cup is on the Golf Channel on Thursday and Friday, then it moves to NBC on Saturday and Sunday. So don’t forget to flip over to see how the Americans are doing in between all of the football action going on this weekend.

GO USA!