International Team captain Ernie Els listens to captain of the U.S. team Tiger Woods speak during a news conference ahead of the 2019 Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia.(William West/AFP via Getty Images)
The Presidents Cup has an added twist to its daily match selection process. Each captain is joined by his assistants and they take turns, live on TV, making their selections, one by one.
The captain of the defending champion gets first pick. Here in 2024, that’ll be U.S. captain Jim Furyk. International captain Mike Weir will then choose for his side for the first match out. The picks follow a snake pattern, meaning Weir then selects third (for the second match) with Furyk selecting fourth and fifth, Weir getting the sixth and seventh, and so on till the session is filled. This is done at the end of each day and provides some off-course drama while giving fans a live peek into the captain’s strategies.
In the Ryder Cup, each captain fills out his lineup in a blind-draw format for each session, providing a mystery for teams and fans alike, with all the matchups getting announced at the same time.
