https://www.presidentscup.com/standings/international-standings.html
The International Team for the Presidents Cup this year at Quail Hollow September 20-25 will take a re-shuffle following today's announcement that Cam Smith and Marc Leishman have defected to LIV.
The top 8 players who automatically qualified from the International Team's points list after the BMW Championship will be joined by 4 picks by captain Trevor Immelman.
Smith finished 1st, while Leishman was 17th. Joaquin Niemann has also jumped, he was 4th, Mito Pereira was 8th, Anirban Lahiri was 15th and they are gone as well, so you can see the effect that the LIV is having on this team which were already huge underdogs to beat a stacked US Team on home soil. They have only 1 win and a tie in 13 matches.
The defections should improve Canadian chances of selection.
Apart from Corey Connors who qualified 6th, Adam Hadwin was 12th and he has played in the 2 previous cups. Mac Hughes was 14th and a surging Taylor Pendrith was 18th but was in and around the top 10 in 5 of his last 6 outings after returning from 4 months off injured.
Other International team qualifiers Hideki Matsuyama at #2 has been off injured recently, 3 Koreans Sungjae Im #3, Tom Kim #5 will likely be joined by KH Lee at #9.
Adam Scott at #7 has been in brilliant form of late, as has been Kiwi Ryan Fox #13 who plays the DP World Tour.
Captain Ernie Els breathed life back into this US dominated event back in 2019 at the Royal Melbourne Club in Victoria. His underdog team got off to a great start and led the US squad captained by Tiger Woods after Day 1. The US fought back over the next 3 sessions to win 16-14 after winning 6 and tying 4 of the 12 Sunday singles.
Leishman, Oosthuizen, Ancer, and Smith were all in the top 8 for that team and are now all playing LIV.
So another tall order for captain Immelman, however never tell 12 top pros they have no chance, The European Ryder Cup team rode that underdog role to perfection as the recent results show winning 12 of the last 18 since 1985.
Bryan Angus
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