The Presidents Cup at Medinah Country Club is still three weeks away, but now the golfers who will be playing in the team event have been revealed.
U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker and Geoff Ogilvy, his counterpart on the International side, completed their 12-man rosters on Tuesday. Snedeker made two most notable selections in his six captain’s picks.
The first of his six was Chris Gotterup, the champion of this year’s John Deere Classic – Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour event. Gotterup won three tournaments this year and had solid finishes in the last two FedEx Cup Playoff events with ties for fourth in both the BMW Championship and Tour Championship.
“I feel good about what I’ve been doing,’’ said Gotterup, who was named to his first national team. “It’s awesome to be part of the team. It’ll be a good time.’’
Gotterup’s selection was no surprise but Snedeker’s last pick was. He picked Jackson Koivun, just out of Auburn University. The 21-year old won the PGA Tour’s 3-M Classic shortly after joining the professional ranks.
Snedeker’s other captain’s picks included three veterans – Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay – and Jacob Bridgeman who, like Koivun, will be making his President’s Cup debut.
The U.S. side will be led by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler who won two of the three FedEx Cup Playoff events including Sunday’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. Sunday’s win earned him the $10 million first prize.
Scheffler was the first of the six U.S. automatic selections which were announced a week ago based on the FedEx point standings before the Tour Championship. The other five were Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, Russell Henley and Collin Morikawa.
The Internationals determined their six automatic selections off the Official World Golf Rankings following the Tour Championship. If those rankings are meaningful, the U.S. has a huge edge in talent.
Automatic picks for the Internationals were headed by Korea’s Si Woo Kim, who is No. 13 in the OWGR. The other automatic qualifiers are New Zealand’s Adam Fox (25), Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (26), Australia’s Min Woo Lee (29), Korea’s Tom Kim (30) and Australia’s Adam Scott (51). Fox will be making his Presidents Cup debut at Medinah while the others have been in the competition in past years.
Ogilvy made his six captain’s picks on Saturday. They were Corey Connors and Nick Taylor, of Canada; Nico Echavarria, Colombia; Sungjae Im, South Korea; Ryo Hisatsune, Japan; and Christian Bezuidenhout, South Africa.
The U.S. has dominated the Presidents Cup competition, owning a 13-1-1 record in the series. Schauffele, Thomas and Cantlay have been stars in the previous matches. All have played on four Presidents Cup teams. Thomas has a 10-3-1 record and Cantlay is 10-4-0.
FED EX PLAYOFFS: Changes are coming in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, but they won’t kick in much until 2028. Commissioner Brian Rolaff announced that East Lake will continue as host of the season-ending Tour Championship for one more year.
East Lake hosted for the first time in 1998 and has been the site every year since then and will be in the spotlight again from Aug. 23-28 in 2027.
Big changes will come in 2028, though. Of immediate note is the naming of Olympia Fields to host a 90-player BMW Championship to conclude the regular season. It will determine 32 players for a match play series to determine the champion.
Olympia Fields’ selection is a big boost for golf in the Chicago area. Next month’s Presidents Cup team event at Medinah will be the first return of the PGA Tour’s top stars since Olympia hosted the BMW for Victor Hovland’s victory in 2023. Olympia was also the site for Jon Rahm’s win in 2020.
In 2028, though, the BMW tournament will have a new format that requires the presentation of three trophies. One will go to the BMW tournament winner. Another will honor the Western Golf Association that has run the tournament (under various names) for 126 years and the third will go to the PGA Championship Series Final winner.
More details on both the 2027 and 2028 seasons will be provided when the PGA Tour makes an announcement at its Florida headquarters on Feb. 22. One footnote before that, though. The John Deere Classic, Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour stop, will retain its dates of recent years – June 28 to July 4, a week before the Scottish Open, in 2027.
ILLINOIS PGA: Andy Svoboda’s playoff win over Andy Mickelson in IPGA Professionals Championship last week at Elgin Country Club pushed Svoboda, of Elevation Golf, into a slim lead over Brian Carroll, of The Hawk in St. Charles, in the IPGA Player of the Year race.
Kevin Flack, of Mauh-Nah-Tee-See Club in Rockford ; Jeff Kellen, North Shore; and Kyle Donovan, Oak Park, are third through fifth in the standings. Mickelson is eighth.
Next event is the IPGA Senior Masters on Sept. 3 at Onwentsia, in Lake Forest. The Chicago District Golf Association hosts the 40th Illinois State Senior Amateur Sept. 14-16 at Mauh-Nah-Tee-See.
