It’s a sobering measure of how uncompetitive the Presidents Cup has been that Mark O’Meara — who retired from the game this weekend at the mummified age of 67 — was the second-ranked golfer in the world when the United States suffered its last (and only) defeat in 1998. The last (and only) time that the Internationals managed a tie was in 2003, when the top 20 in the world rankings featured just two men not now on the senior tour: Tiger Woods and Freddie Jacobson, and Freddie receives his AARP card on Thursday, the day on which the 16th Presidents Cup gets underway in Montreal.
There’s a passionate audience for team golf that thrills fans and stress tests competitors. Just not all team golf delivers that. The Ryder and Solheim Cups do, but for multiple reasons, the Presidents Cup has struggled for traction. It’s not the dearth of history — the Solheim Cup is only four years older — but rather an amorphous team identity and a lack of competitiveness.
It’s tough to rally around the Internationals without suggesting an anti-U.S. vibe, a delicate balance made no easier by this year’s “away” match happening less than 30 miles from the New York border. (As the ProV1 flies, Royal Montreal is closer to U.S. captain Jim Furyk’s birthplace in Pennsylvania than to his Canadian counterpart Mike Weir’s hometown in Ontario). And for compelling competition, there must be the possibility that Goliath could lose, and the last time that happened R. Kelly was No. 1 in the Billboard charts and not inmate No. 09627-035 at a Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina.
Which isn’t to say there’s no effort and pride around the Presidents Cup. Generations of International skippers have had plenty, and Furyk recently took umbrage when my colleague, Adam Schupak, suggested a U.S. loss would be better for the event’s relevance. “Go f—k yourself,” the American leader said in a delightfully unparliamentary rebuke. But Cap’n Jim might be the only resident of Ponte Vedra Beach so strongly opposed to the benefits of defeat.
Next week will go a long way toward determining the future of the Presidents Cup. It’s profitable — the amount varies widely by location — but with every aspect of the PGA Tour’s business under scrutiny by private equity investors, another easy U.S. victory might force a rethink on how to better maximize product value. There are regular calls for the Presidents Cup to become a co-ed event, but it’s hardly outlandish to wonder if it will be repackaged as a bridge between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, should the Department of Justice insist the Saudi circuit not be binned as part of a deal between the Tour and the Public Investment Fund.
It seems likely that team golf will be a component in any definitive agreement with the PIF, whose governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, is apparently convinced that such franchises will become highly valuable. Even if he’s correct — a generous grant — realizing value is years off. Short term, it remains a tough sell, and not just because LIV’s laughably execrable product has poisoned the well when it comes to fan perceptions of team golf not organized around national loyalty.
Any future team platform operated by PGA Tour Enterprises will probably be seeded from TGL, the simulator-based league backed by Woods and Rory McIlroy, even if it involves LIV teams competing too. But like every concept mooted in golf these days, that raises questions with no readily apparent answers. Will consumers who enjoy a biennial U.S.-Europe feast take to being force-fed team events more frequently? Will they embrace simulator golf as tightly packaged entertainment on Tuesday nights in winter? What about on nights when Woods and McIlroy aren’t playing? Will they care enough to invest themselves in team standings week to week?
And, trickiest of all, what will they sacrifice from their normal diet to accommodate team golf?
If team franchises are to gain value, they need a season that extends beyond a few winter weeks indoors in Florida. There has to be a green grass element too. And that’s where team golf collides with the brick wall impacting every aspect of the PGA Tour-PIF negotiations: the schedule.
Top golfers won’t work more than 24-26 weeks a year. Earlier this month, McIlroy said he wants to play just 18-20 weeks. For non-LIV guys, that doesn’t leave much time after accounting for majors, the Players Championship, a Ryder Cup, the FedEx Cup playoffs, the signature Tour events and whatever sundry stops guys feel obliged to make on home circuits. The only way team golf doesn’t come at the expense of something else on the calendar is if it’s bolted on to existing tournaments — for example, Tuesday afternoon matches at the Memorial or the Travelers Championship. Even that solution demands those sponsors be willing to share their week and leaves open the question of scheduling playoffs or a team grand finale.
All of these unknowns exist against a backdrop of fan apathy. If there is an audience hungry for team golf, then LIV would have drawn greater numbers, even allowing for the garish theatrics and players who’d struggle to win a popularity contest if it was staged at Smith College and the only other candidate was J.D. Vance.
The best scenario we can hope for is a team product emerging that engages fans and taps into the passion we see around Ryder and Solheim Cups. The second best scenario is that if team golf fails, it should fail quickly. Because at this juncture, it seems more like an off-ramp being built to save Al-Rumayyan’s blushes and less like the gleaming new highway he imagines it to be.
