Just For Fun

How Does the Presidents Cup Work?

Published

13 years ago

September 5, 2013

How Does the Presidents Cup Work Like the Ryder Cup, the President’s Cup is a series of golf matches played between a men’s team represented by the United States versus an International team represented by non-U.S. players (minus Europeans). The reason the Europeans sit out the President’s cup is because they play every other year in the Ryder Cup.

The President’s Cup (like the Ryder Cup) is played biennially (occurring every two years) and was traditionally carried out during the even number years, while the Ryder Cup is always played on the odd number years. However, the devastating events that took place on September 11, 2001 pushed everything back a year, thus forever altering the schedule.

In 2013, the President’s Cup will be hosted in the USA at Muirfield Village in Dublin, OH which is one of Jack Nicklaus’ signature courses and recently, the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea was named home of the 2015 Presidents Cup.

The President’s Cup event will conclude the 2013 regular season after the FedExCup Playoffs are complete.

So how does the Presidents Cup work?

Format

The scoring system of the event is match play. The format, like the Ryder Cup, consists of 12 players per side and a non-playing captain who is usually a big name in the game. The captain’s responsibly is to pick his two bonus players, and pair the teams in the doubles events, which consist of both best ball and alternate shot formats. Unlike the Ryder Cup, all 12 players must play foursome and fourball (see our article on how the different golf formats work for more on this) matches on Thursday and Friday (six matches per session whereas the Ryder Cup contains four matches). Additionally, two players will sit out each session of the Saturday matches and each player must play a one-on-one singles match on Sunday.

Each match is worth one point. In the doubles matches a half-point is awarded to each team in the event of a tie. So, with 11 foursome doubles matches, 11 fourball doubles matches and 12 singles matches – the total potential points awarded is 34 points.

To win the Presidents Cup a team must accrue a total of 17.5 points which would be more than 50% of the total points that can be earned.

History

The Presidents Cup will be played for the 10th time in 2013. It was first developed to give the world’s best non-European players an opportunity to compete in an international team match-play competition because the Ryder Cup is USA versus Europe only. This biennial event is played in non-Ryder Cup years and currently the U.S. holds a 7-1-1 record in The President’s Cup throughout its short history. Captains during that time included Nicklaus, Player, Couples, Norman and many more.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have combined for 43.5 President’s Cup victories over their career, and the U.S. has proven much success over their history in this event.