The Presidents Cup returns this week at Royal Montreal Golf Club where the Internationals will once again aim to win the trophy from the Americans for the first time since 1998.
The match has a bad reputation for its competitiveness with USA winning 12 of the 14 stagings, with one tie and one going the Internationals’ way.
The rest-of-world team so nearly won the cup back in 2019 at Royal Melbourne where Tiger Woods’ Team USA mounted a stunning final day comeback but the Internationals lost momentum for the 2022 event due to the formation of LIV Golf.
It meant that a number of its key players were ineligible because the match is organized by the PGA Tour, therefore the likes of that year’s Open champion Cameron Smith was the big player missing along with Abraham Ancer, Joaquin Niemann, Marc Leishman, Louis Oosthuizen.
Two years on and LIV Golfers still can’t play in the Presidents Cup due to the fact that the match is run by the PGA Tour, so which side is most affected and which notable players are missing?
LIV Golfers missing the International team
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Both sides have been impacted once again, but it is likely the Internationals that are impacted more. As well as the names previously mentioned, Sebastian Munoz and Mito Pereira have both moved to LIV Golf since the last Presidents Cup, with Munoz in particular a loss due to his impressive performance last time out.
The Colombian, who has won once on the PGA Tour, won 2.5 points from three matches two years ago in an unbeaten debut where he beat Scottie Scheffler in the singles.
Joaquin Niemann has won three times in the past year so is the Internationals’ most notable player missing, closely followed by 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Louis Oosthuizen is another big name ineligible, with the South African winning twice in December last year and then finishing 6th in the LIV points list. Cam Smith was 7th this year, while another International player Dean Burmester was 9th.
Burmester has won three times in the past 12 months in what has been the best run of his career, so he surely would have been picked had LIV Golfers been eligible. Abraham Ancer was impressive in 2019, where he won 3.5 points from his first four matches before losing to Woods in the opening singles match….
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