In comes as no surprise Internationals President Cup Captain, Nick Price is placing his trust in this year’s Presidents Cup in the cornerstone foursome of the Australian pair of Adam Scott and Jason Day along with the Springbok golfing duo of Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen.
Price, who was a member of that 1998 Royal Melbourne winning side, spoke of the impace the four will hopefully have in today’s announcement of the two International Team and also the pair of USA Team ‘wildcard’ picks.
With the start of competition at the 2017 Presidents Cup less than one month away, Price chose Emiliano Grillo of Argentina and Anirban Lahiri of India, while Stricker selected Charley Hoffman and Phil Mickelson.
Three Australians in Scott, Day and Marc Leishman, who went so close to victory on Monday in Boston, qualified automatically to join also three South Africans in Oosthuizen, Schwartzel and Branden Grace.
Steve Stricker and rival International Team captani, Nick Price
Sadly, just once since inaugual Presidents Cup at Manassas in Virginia in 1994 has the Internationals tasted success and that was four years later in December 1998 under the captaincy of five-time Open Champion, Peter Thomson and in the heatwave and annoying Aussie flies at Royal Melbourne.
Of course, there was a 17-all draw thanks to legendary Jack Nicklaus in 2003 at Fancourt in South Africa.
But unlike their European cousins who have dominated the Ryder Cup in recent years, the Internationals are one win, one draw but 10 loses.
Scot is again the backbone to the International Team and his selection now sees the champion Australian set to contest his eighth Presidents Cup and match the record number of appearances enjoyed by Ernie Els and Vijay Singh.
And Price spoke of the importance of the leading two Australians, in Scott and Day, and the corresponding top two South Africans, will play in hopefully in denying the Americans on home soil.
“If you look at Adam and Jason and Charl, Louis, and the guys who have played a lot, they have never won with, so this is a difficult — it’s tough for these guys, they don’t know what it’s like to win,” said Price.
“Ernie and I together, we’re the two guys on this team, the captains who have been there in a winning situation. Last time in Korea, I had a big photo of the winning team in 1998, and I said to the guys in the team room before when we had our team meeting, I said, “You guys have got to know what that feeling’s like, to be with 11 of your teammates and to win, I said it’s a fantastic feeling”.
And Indian No. 1 Anirban Lahiri believes Scott could be the key to the Internationals Presidents Cup team winning the bienniel event for a first occasion on US soil.
Lahiri, who has struggled with his game in recent weeks,and along with Argentinean Emiliano Grillo were afforded ‘wildcard’ picks by Price when announced in a teleconference hook-up late Wednesday afternoon US time.
The India No. 1, who will be making his second straight International Team showing, believes a strong showing from Scott will be pivotal to the overall team efforts.
“Adam is an inspiration to all of us, especially my generation,” said Lahiri in the teleconference.
“He’s absolutely magnificent. Adam and I played in Korea two years ago. When he’s in full flight, it’s just amazing to watch him play.”
Rival USA Team captain, Steve Stricker surprised no one in chossing Phil Mickelson and 40-year old Charley Hoffman who will make his Presidents Cup debut in the event that commences September 28 at Liberty National in New Jersey.
Lahiri and Grillo will join 10 players who automatically qualified for the International Team and with the full 12-man International Team hereunder: –
International Team
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- Adam Hadwin
- Adam Scott
- Anirban Lahiri
- Branden Grace
- Charl Schwartzel
- Emiliano Grillo
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Jason Day
- Jhonattan Vegas
- Louis Oosthuizen
- Marc Leishman
- Si Woo Kim
