The 2022 Presidents Cup Is Going to Be an Unwatchable Massacre, and LIV Golf Is Partly to Blame
Davis Love III and Trevor Immelman locked in their captain’s picks Wednesday to finalize their rosters for the 2022 Presidents Cup, and boy, do we have ourselves a glaring mismatch this year.
Led by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the United States team will bring 11 of the top 20 golfers in the world to Quail Hollow. On the other side, the International squad has just two players ranked inside the top 20, and no team member is ranked higher than 16th.
It’s going to be a bloodbath in Charlotte, NC later this month, and LIV Golf is partly to blame.
The 2022 Presidents Cup teams are finalized
The 2022 Presidents Cup field is officially locked in.
On Wednesday, Love III announced his star-studded captain’s picks to complete Team USA’s roster: Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, and Kevin Kisner. Those six players will join Scheffler, Justin Thomas, and the rest of Team USA’s loaded lineup at Quail Hollow in two weeks.
Immelman, the captain of the International team, named Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Cameron Davis, Si Woo Kim, K.H. Lee, Sebastian Munoz, and Taylor Pendrith as his six captain’s picks. They’ll join Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, and four others on the International squad.
Check out the full rosters for the 2022 Presidents Cup below:
| United States | International |
|---|---|
| Scottie Scheffler (1) | Hideki Matsuyama (16) |
| Patrick Cantlay (4) | Sungjae Im (18) |
| Xander Schauffele (5) | Joohyung Kim (21) |
| Justin Thomas (7) | Corey Conners (25) |
| Collin Morikawa (8) | Adam Scott (30) |
| Sam Burns (12) | K.H. Lee (41) |
| Jordan Spieth (13) | Mito Pereira (49) |
| Tony Finau (14) | Christiaan Bezuidenhout (64) |
| Billy Horschel (15) | Sebastian Munoz (65) |
| Cameron Young (17) | Cameron Davis (67) |
| Max Homa (20) | Si Woo Kim (75) |
| Kevin Kisner (26) | Taylor Pendrith (114) |
LIV Golf is partly to blame for the inevitable Presidents Cup blowout
Remember when the best players in the NBA still suited up for Team USA and demolished every other country in international competition? Yeah, that’s the vibe surrounding this year’s Presidents Cup.
The average world ranking of players on the United States team is a ridiculous 11.8. Comparatively, the highest-ranked player on the International team is Matsuyama at No. 16. If the 2021 Masters champ was on Team USA this year, he would be the 11th-ranked player on the 12-man roster.
This simply isn’t a fair fight, and that’s reflected in the betting odds. Team USA is currently a -550 favorite to win the 2022 Presidents Cup (FanDuel), and that still feels cheap based on the glaring discrepancy between the two teams.
If only the International squad had a top-ranked player who could compete with the big guns on Team USA. Oh wait, that’s right. Immelman should have World No. 2 Cameron Smith on his roster, but the Australian is ineligible to play in the Presidents Cup because of his decision to join LIV Golf. The International team would also have No. 19 Joaquin Niemann, No. 24 Abraham Ancer, and No. 31 Louis Oosthuizen available if it wasn’t for their defection to LIV.
The Americans would still be sizeable favorites against the best possible roster the Internationals could field, but with this current matchup, they might as well skip the event this year. This tournament is over before it’s even started, and LIV Golf is a big reason why.
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