We’re all thinking it, so I’ll say it: change the Presidents Cup, or scrap it

Is this the last-chance saloon for the Presidents Cup? It isn’t, of course. But it feels like it is. At least it should be.

Do you even enjoy it? Maybe it’s because it’s hard to get invested in a tournament that is competed between the USA and the rest-of-the-world-except-Europe. (Still, it’s always nice to see Royal Melbourne in the spotlight once a decade, eh?)

But it can’t possibly be enjoyable even for those who do have a vested interest.

This month’s Presidents Cup will be the 15th edition of the biennial tournament. Of the 14 already played, the USA have won 12, the International team have won once, and there has been one draw.

That win, by the way, came way back in 1998 – and it was a 20½-11½ pasting that gave a smidgen of hope. It didn’t last long. The following year the Americans won by 11, and since then by three, five, five, four, three, one, eight, two and five. An average of almost five points per win across a ten-tournament winning streak.

That cannot possibly be entertaining. So what’s the answer?

Scrap it? That feels a bit drastic. They’re not going to do that – not when there’s plenty of money to be made through sponsorship.

Let LIV golfers back in? Well that would strengthen the International team, who would get the likes of Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann return – but it also means the US get Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, to name just two. It also won’t happen until this so-called merger gets over the line – if it ever will.

Expand the International team to include Europe? That certainly worked for the Ryder Cup, which was dominated by our friends across the Atlantic until Seve and co came aboard. But surely that will just make it feel like a Ryder Cup but with added Hideki Matsuyama.

Indeed, if the tournament was open to Europeans, the Japanese player would have been joined on Mike Weir’s International team – which is based off the world rankings – by Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood and Robert MacIntyre, all of whom starred in Rome last October.

But maybe – just maybe – this year’s tournament is the one that will turn it around.

Mike Weir has built himself a solid team of in-form stars and home favourites. And outside of Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa, the US team isn’t much to write home about. There’s not a lot of experience in there, and this will be the first American Presidents or Ryder Cup side with no Jordan Spieth or Justin Thomas since 2011.

If I’m Captain Weir, I’m sticking a photo of Wyndham Clark on the wall and telling my players that this man missed the cut in three of this year’s majors and finished 56th out of 74 in the other and somehow ended up fourth in the US standings.

I’m also quietly confident because my opposite number, Jim Furyk, lost 30 of his 67 matches as a player across both the Presidents and Ryder Cups, as well as being battered in his last stint as captain at Le Golf National.

The bottom line is the Presidents Cup needs an International victory at Royal Montreal in a couple of weeks, because 26 years is a hell of a long time to go without a win. I should know, I’m an England fan.

And those big corporations that pump money into these events? They aren’t going to keep signing cheques if the punters are turning off.

• Justin Thomas reacts to Presidents Cup snub

• American star says missing out on Presidents Cup ‘hurts’

Keegan conundrum

Jim Furyk has decided Keegan Bradley – who has a really good shot at being the first Ryder Cup player-captain since Arnold Palmer in the ’60s – will not carry out his assistant captain duties in Montreal after he picked him to be on the team. Make it make sense.

Still – it could mean the return of a certain someone…

Catriona riding the waves

Catriona Matthew just has it, doesn’t she? She is a born leader.

Having already captained the European Solheim Cup team to memorable back to back victories in 2019 and ’21, the Scottish legend turned her attentions to the Curtis Cup and subsequently ended GB&I’s eight-year losing streak.

What is remarkable is that those three tournaments have been won by a total margin of four points. When matches are tight and it really could go either way, ‘Beany’ knows exactly what to do to get her team over the line.

I’d have her as Ryder Cup captain in a heartbeat.

A whole Lottie love

While we’re on the Curtis Cup – how exciting is Lottie Woad?

It feels like English golf is desperately searching for its next big star, and Woad fits the bill perfectly. She won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, rose to number one in the amateur rankings, had a top-25 in her major debut at the Chevron, and a top-10 at the Women’s Open – a finish that also secured her the Smyth Salver for low am.

This girl has a big future in the game.

Are you my Wonderwall?

I did this in the latest episode of The bunkered Podcast and I’ll do it here. I have zero shame at this point.

Were you one of the millions who tried to get tickets for Oasis? Did you succeed? Do you have any spares? Get in touch, yeah?

And finally…

We finish as always with the good work of my bunkered teammates in the last week or so.

Ben Parsons and John Turnbull are on holiday – the swines! – but Michael McEwan clearly had a lot of fun breaking down Scottie Scheffler’s ludicrously lucrative season, as well as getting a bit cheeky about Rory McIlroy’s future. (More on that on the pod, by the way.)

On the other side of the site, Lewis Fraser has done a wonderful breakdown to make sure you’re playing from the correct tee. As someone who thinks tees should be ability based, this is music to my ears. (Or whatever the equivalent for your eyes is.)

James Tait, meanwhile, continues to smash it out the park – quite literally, in some cases – on our YouTube channel.

That’s me. Have a good week, and play well.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor