Unsurprisingly, there has already been plenty of debate concerning the future of the Presidents Cup after USA retained the trophy in relatively comfortable fashion at Royal Montreal last week.
Those who already felt that the Presidents Cup needed changes probably feel vindicated after the latest edition of the event, with the US securing one of their biggest ever wins. Jim Furyk‘s men won four of the five sessions – and the combined score in those four sessions was 18.5-6.5.
There really did appear to be something different about this International team – who were looking for only their second win in 15 attempts. They had so many hurdles put in front of them in 2022 but fought back to set up a tense finish at Quail Hollow. This time around, there was nothing like the same level of upheaval – and Mike Weir was able to pick three Canadians on his team.
And they made a real statement with their clean sweep on Friday. Unfortunately, they were simply unable to kick on from there.
Peter Finch suggests what has confused him about the Presidents Cup
Some are baffled that the PGA Tour have not made changes to the scoring system. Meanwhile, Peter Finch believes that they need to branch out on where they take the event.
Royal Montreal has now hosted the event on two occasions, while Australia will host the event for a fourth time in 2028. South Africa and South Korea meanwhile, have hosted it once. And speaking on The Rough Cut Golf Podcast, Finch suggested that it made little sense to him to head back to Montreal.
“Something which is confusing about the Presidents Cup, last thing we’ll touch on here, Royal Montreal, I don’t get it,” he said.
“If you have a look at the Presidents Cup and the courses that they’ve been played at, I think Royal Montreal’s appeared three times with an International one, you’ve had Royal Melbourne, which I think is three times. You’ve had similar courses in the US like Robert Trent Jones, that to start with hosted three in a row maybe. You’ve got a team competition, I don’t know why it’s not been spread around more.”
Time for the PGA Tour to take a gamble
Obviously, a problem the PGA Tour has is that the majority of the season takes place in the States. So it does not necessarily have especially strong ties to another region in the world.
But that does not mean that the event cannot be held at another Canadian course, at least. So many courses have held the Canadian Open down the years. Few will forget the scenes when Nick Taylor won the event at Oakdale in 2023.
The PGA Tour may feel that it is too much of a risk to head somewhere new at a time when the Internationals need every leveller they can find. But there is surely no doubt now that some significant changes need to be made if the tour hope to elevate the Presidents Cup to anything like the same level as the Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
