Following The Tour Championship, those not assured of a place on the teams at the upcoming Presidents Cup have now done all they can to send a message to Mike Weir and Jim Furyk, with the captains set to announce their picks for Royal Montreal on Tuesday.
With the FedEx Cup play-offs now done and dusted, the thoughts of many golf fans will turn to the Presidents Cup in Canada later this month, as the Internationals look to win only their second title. Of course, the first six names on each side have automatically qualified for the event.
Unfortunately for Mike Weir, none of those already on his team are from Canada. So the likes of Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith, Nick Taylor, Adam Hadwin and Mackenzie Hughes will be relying on a pick if they are going to be involved on home soil.
Certainly, there seems to be a very good chance of Weir bringing a good number of the quintet into his side, particularly with Conners, Pendrith and Taylor inside the top 12 in the qualification standings. But inevitably, some ruthless calls are going to have to be made.
Smylie Kaufman shocked to hear rumour PGA Tour winner will miss out of Presidents Cup pick
And speaking on The Smylie Show about the upcoming announcement, Smylie Kaufman claimed that he had heard that the 2023 Canadian Open champion is one looking set to miss out.
“Nick Taylor, this is the one that I’ve heard potentially is not a pick, and that one, to me, would be absolutely shocking. This is the player that I feel like has the most famous shot in Canadian history at the Canadian Open last year, sinking that putt. Now this may not be true, this is just a rumour I heard that he’s not getting picked,” he said.
“This is just what I heard that Nick Taylor maybe wasn’t getting picked, that would shock me. I hope he’s on that team because I think he should be.”
An impossible call, but form has potentially dipped at worst time
In fairness to Weir, if he did pick all five Canadian players, he would able to make a convincing argument for why they all deserve a place. None of those mentioned sit below 15th in the standings – the likes of Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas are lower on the American side.
And it does feel important that there is Canadian representation on the team, particularly with the American team looking so strong on paper.
But it would be incredibly harsh on Taylor if he is set to miss out, because any Canadian in the top 12 must have been pretty confident that they would get the call.
Unfortunately, his form, more recently, has been up and down, with the 36-year-old only making the first play-off event in the FedEx Cup. He also missed his last eight cuts at the major championships.
But he did have that incredible moment at the Canadian Open last year, and followed that with victory in Phoenix earlier this season. So you could understand why Kaufman would be shocked to see Taylor miss out.
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