Jim Furyk went where the math took him in finalizing the U.S. Presidents Cup team on Monday.
Mike Weir, trying to win a Presidents Cup for the International team for the first time since Bill Clinton was President, is taking some chances.
The two captains made their wild-card selections and now know their 12-man teams going into the matches Sept. 26-29 at Royal Montreal. The U.S. is 12-1-1 in the match-play competition and has won the last nine cups since a 17-17 tie in South Africa in 2003.
The International team’s only victory was in 1998 at Royal Melbourne in Australia.
Furyk went to the points list and simply took the next six players after the six automatic qualifiers: Sam Burns, Keegan Bradley, Tony Finau, Brian Harman, Russell Henley and Max Homa.
All six players had solid seasons in 2024, although Homa had only one top-10 since he tied for third in the Masters. However, Furyk cited Homa’s 4-0 record in the 2022 Presidents Cup and his 3-1-1 mark in the 2023 Ryder Cup.
“Max plays his best on the biggest stages, and that was on full display at the 2022 Presidents Cup and 2023 Ryder Cup,” Furyk said. “He was an emotional leader for both teams and someone who rallied the 11 players around him time and again.”
Harman and Henley will be Presidents Cup rookies. Bradley and Finau have .500 or better records in the event and Burns’ 0-3-2 record in 2022 is more than offset by his form this season. He has eight top-10s and is the only player to finish among the top-five in the first two FedEx Cup playoff events
The U.S. automatic qualifiers are FedEx Cup, Masters and Players champion Scottie Scheffler, two-time 2024 major champion Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Saith Theegala.
Mike Weir shuffles Canadians
Weir, a Canadian, went more on a limb with his captain’s picks, starting with passing over countrymen Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Cam Davis of Australia.
Weir still picked three Canadians, Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith, and also added Christiaan Bezhuidenhout of South Africa, Si Woo Kim of South Korea and Min Woo Lee of Australia.
They join automatic qualifiers (based on the World Golf Rankings) Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, Sungjae Im of South Korea, Adam Scott of Australia, Tom Kim of South Korea, Jason Day of Australia and Byeong Hun An of South Korea.
Taylor was a particularly difficult pass. He won the Canadian Open last year but had six missed cuts and no top-10s in individual stroke-play tournament since he won the WM Phoenix Open in January.
Hadwin’s best finish this season was third at the Memorial but he had no other top-10s. Davis was playing well this summer, winning the Rocket Mortgage Classic and tying for fifth in the BMW Championship.
Weir acknowledged last week that there would be some “tough picks.”
The only hint of second-guessing about Furyk’s selections was leaving off Justin Thomas, who had a better season in 2024 than last year when Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson selected him. This will be the first U.S. match-play event that Thomas will miss since the 2016 Ryder Cup.
“He’s a great team room guy,” Furyk said of Thomas on a Golf Channel interview. “He’s going to play on a ton of these teams in the future as well as one day be a captain and a great one. Tough omission but I had to take the 12 guys I saw fit.”
Tours go dark this week
With the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup season concluded and the LPGA taking a break before its match-play team event, the PGA Tour Champions is the only major tour in action this week.
Here’s when the other tours resume:
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PGA Tour: The FedEx Cup Fall schedule begins Sept. 12-15 with the Procore Championship at the Silverado Resort in Napa, Calif.
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LIV Golf League: The final event before the LIV Golf Team Championship near Dallas later this month will be LIV Chicago Sept. 13-15 at the Bolingbrook Golf Club.
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LPGA: The Solheim Cup, pitting the U.S. vs. Europe, will be Sept. 13-15 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va.
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Korn Ferry Tour: The Korn Ferry Finals continue Sept. 12-15 with the Simmons Bank Open in Franklin, Tenn.
PGA Tour Champions: Meet me in St. Louis
Event: Ascension Charity Classic, Friday-Sunday, Norwood Hills Country Club, St. Louis, Mo.
What’s the purse? $2.1 million ($378,000 to the winner).
Who won last year? Steve Flesch shot 62 in the final round and beat Kevin Sutherland by three shots.
How to watch on TV: Golf Channel (Friday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m.).
Area players entered: David Duval, Fred Funk.
Notable: Among the players in the field is Stewart Cink, who won his first PGA Tour Champions event at the Ally Challenge. Also playing are Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Retief Goosen, Angel Cabrera and John Daly. … Norwood Hills hosted the PGA Tour’s Greater St. Louis Golf Classic in 1972 ( with Lee Trevino winning) and 1973 ( Gene Littler).
PGA Tour Americas: Seasons ends with Fortinet Cup
Event: Fortinet Cup Championship, Thursday-Sunday, TPC Toronto.
What’s the purse? $225,000 ($40,500 to the winner).
Who won last year? First-year event.
How to watch on TV: Not televised.
Area players entered: Taylor Funk, Travis Trace.
Notable: A field of 116 will compete in the PGA Tour Americas season-ending event. The top 10 on the points list, currently led by former Baylor golfer John Keefer, earns Korn Ferry Tour status for 2025. The top 80 earn full PGA Tour Americas status for 2025. … Trace, a Sandalwood graduate, is 33rd on the points list and Funk, a past state champion for Ponte Vedra High, is 92nd.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jim Furyk, Mike Weir make tough calls with Presidents Cup captain’s picks
