2022 Presidents Cup Captain: Trevor Immelman Announces Six Captain Selections For The International Team

International team captain Trevor Immelman has an impossible task ahead of him when it comes to making his 2022 Presidents Cup selections. He has to fill positions that would otherwise be lost to the world No. 2, Cameron Smith, as well as another top 20 player in Joaquin Niemann, took over after they both left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf and failed to qualify for the competition.

On Tuesday, with two weeks left until the Presidents Cup kicks off at Quail Hollow, Immelman made his pick.

Cameron Davis, Si Woo Kim, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, KH Lee, Sebastian Munoz and Taylor Pendrith will join Adam Scott, Mito Pereira, Tom Kim, Corey Conners, Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im – all of whom are qualified for points – on team international arena. Initially, Immelman expected only four picks, but the departures of Smith and Niemann gave him two more chances.

None of these captain’s six picks rank among the top 40 golfers in the world – KH Lee is the top-ranked at 41 – but all are as compelling as the world’s top 40 golfers. ability, will be needed against a fully loaded U.S. team. Pendrith and Davis are out-of-the-box monsters. Munoz and Lee are former PGA Tour champions. Bezuidenhout is arguably one of the best hitters in the world and Kim is a huge (if mysterious) talent who has won three events, including the Players Championship, and lost three. another in the playoffs at the age of 26.

Kim is the only player to have experienced the President Cup before.

One of the problems for the international team (among many) is the length of Quail Hollow and the meager amount of it the team owns, which is something they have clearly managed to solve with six picks. of this captain.

“Quail Hollow is a golf course that rewards length,” Immelman said in a statement. “And [Pendrith] Undoubtedly one of the longest-running ball handlers in our sport. The way he coped with the adversity of a serious injury during his rookie season, rejoining the PGA Tour and having five top 15 finishes in his last six events were marked by T2s. at Rocket Mortgage Classic, which means he’s someone we can’t help but look past. “

Immelman took on The First Cut Podcast last week to talk about some of the players on his team, and he’s rated highly on both Im and Tom Kim, both of whom have had great years. They will be one of the better players on this team and are seen as being able to carry a lot of the load against the Americans.

2022 Presidents Cup team

*Captain picks scheduled for Team USA on Wednesday

The international team is up against both a tedious past and an overwhelming present. Only six players automatically qualify for USA captain Davis Love III, but he is expected to pick Jordan Spieth, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Cameron Young and Collin Morikawa for the captain’s picks. me. With Will Zalatoris’ injury, 12th place is yet to be determined, but the American depth is staggering compared to the international team.

Immelman will try to fight the enormous talent of the United States with all the talent he has at his disposal. He could have easily gone with some other older players with more experience, but instead, he picked five unproven but also scar-free rookies. This is a method that the US team really adopted last year against the European Ryder Cup team, and it has worked very well.

While I don’t really expect the final international team to compete against the US team at Quail Hollow with the depth and power of the latter over the former, Immelman was at least wise with how he went about building. build their team after LIV departs and anchor Smith’s team can’t run any further. He at least gave himself and his team a chance.

The international team hasn’t won the President’s Cup since 1998 and has never won it domestically.