This Presidents Cup Is Missing Top Players on Both Sides. Does That Matter?
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Has Dustin Johnson become just an afterthought?
Would Johnson, who went 5-0 in the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in 2021, bring value this week to a U.S. team at Quail Hollow that is a huge favorite?
If you listen to U.S. Presidents Cup captain Davis Love III, it sounds like Johnson would have little to bring to his team and while they miss him ... well, not that much.
“I think on points, we pretty much got the guys we wanted to get,” Love said in his first Presidents Cup press conference on Tuesday. “I think we would have had to make a spot for him as a pick farther down unless he got on a huge roll in the FedEx Cup.”
While Johnson is not Tiger Woods (the winningest Presidents Cup player, at 27-15-1), his 10-6-2 record in Presidents Cups is nothing to sneeze at.
Of course, add in his 29 professional wins, 24 on the PGA Tour and you have a horse that would be nothing but an asset on a Quail Hollow course where Johnson finished T13 in the 2017 PGA Championship with a final-round 67 on Sunday.
But Love’s real focus is to give players that did not defect to LIV Golf, like Johnson did in June, their day in the sun.
“I think what we've talked about is we both have 12 guys that support the PGA Tour that want to play in the Presidents Cup and are fired up to be on these teams,” Love said.
To suggest that Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau or Brooks Koepka would not be interested in playing this week seems a bit disingenuous.
Taking the argument a bit farther, International team captain Trevor Immelman is not so easily confused by the importance of having World No. 3 Cam Smith, Louis Oosthuizen or Abraham Ancer on the team.
There is no question that the International team would be better off with the three, and even a Marc Leishman or Branden Grace sprinkled in could be beneficial, but Immelman’s approach is different than Love’s.
“What stopped me is the fact that when I was made captain and chosen to be captain from the players after the 2019 Cup, we signed up to a specific set of rules,” Immelman said of why he didn’t push harder to get the LIV golfers on his team. “This event is owned and sanctioned by the PGA Tour, and our team is a team that plays by the rules. We're a team of our word. We're a team of honor. So that's where we're at.”
With LIV Golf now in the mix, Love’s loyalties are beyond question.
Immelman also didn’t press the issue with the PGA Tour about Oosthuizen or Smith, because he has an ethical approach to his team and the event.
So, when the first match tees off on Thursday, neither team will be the best it could be, with one captain concerned about his team’s loyalty to the PGA Tour and the other captain featuring virtuous characteristics and morals that were more important than having the best team he could.
While both captains have scruples, this may be the beginning of diminished events with lesser players.
As the world rankings debate heats up, i.e., giving points to LIV Golf events, tournaments on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour will almost certainly have lesser fields and lesser competition.
It’s just the nature of things when you eliminate some of the best players in the world like Smith, Johnson and Oosthuizen.
Over the next year the four majors and a Ryder Cup will be contested, and if these players are not invited or provided some type of accommodation since they are not playing for world ranking points to play, the game will suffer.
This week at Quail Hollow will be a litmus test. Will it matter that the 24 best players are not here?
Time will tell.
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