Ryan Lavner says he’s so confused by the PGA Tour’s stance after USA retain the Presidents Cup

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With USA retaining the Presidents Cup relatively comfortably at Royal Montreal last week, it is not particularly surprising that much of the discourse following the event has focused on its future with the Internationals’ wait for a second win now set to edge closer to 30 years.

Critics of the Presidents Cup will likely feel that they have been vindicated over the last few days. While the Internationals did brilliantly to bounce back from going 5-0 down on Thursday, Friday proved to be the one session where Mike Weir‘s men were not soundly beaten.

There was still a chance for the Internationals heading into the Sunday singles, with the scoreline 11-7. However, the final matches offered little drama, with Keegan Bradley securing the winning point from match six.

Some may feel that this year proved to be a step backwards from Quail Hollow two years ago. There was something special in the way Trevor Immelman’s men battled back from 8-2 down over the first two days to set up a tense finish. It was even more impressive because the likes of Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann had jumped ship to LIV Golf before the event.

Ryan Lavner baffled by PGA Tour’s reluctance to make changes to the Presidents Cup

The Internationals have lost more players to LIV since. But the boat seemed to be a lot steadier heading to Royal Montreal, with a core of Canadians who would attract amazing support. So it is perhaps ominous that the defeat was so emphatic.

There is an argument that fewer points need to be played for to make up for the weaker depth the Internationals have. And speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Ryan Lavner insisted that it is in the PGA Tour’s best interests to make changes to their event.

“It’s just so confusing why the PGA Tour would not want to make this tweak,” he said.

“We’ve heard for years, oh they’re incentivised to have the US continue to win this thing. This is not a good enough product if the US continues to win this thing. The PGA Tour is owning and operating under the purview of both of these teams. They should want this to be as competitive as possible.”

One small tweak could make a real difference

The Internationals will not want the goalposts moved to the extent where every change is made to benefit their chances of finally winning again. That will remove a lot of the satisfaction when that victory does indeed come.

But playing for 28 points rather than 30 – as they do in the Ryder Cup – appears to make a lot of sense. Having two fewer matches seems to be a very small change, but it would enable the Internationals to potentially take a couple of their weaker links out of the firing line. It would also perhaps make it easier for the captain to pick players better suited to one particular format.

There is no need to rip everything up and start again. The Americans won six matches by a score of 1 up over the course of the week. Had some of those been flipped, it could have been much more nervy for Jim Furyk‘s men.

But something does probably need to change at some stage if the Presidents Cup has any hopes of being considered anywhere near as important as the Ryder Cup or the Solheim Cup.