It has been a disappointing stretch for American team golf of late. At the Walker Cup, the Americans blew a massive singles lead to Great Britain and Ireland to lose their first Walker Cup since 2015. Then, the American Solheim Cup team lost 15-13 to the Europeans at Bernardus. Sprinkle in back-to-back Ryder Cup defeats to the Europeans, and there’s no question that American team golf needs some good vibes.
Luckily for the Red, White and Blue, history suggests this week at the 2026 Presidents Cup will provide the pick-me-up the Americans are looking for before they turn their attention to the 2027 Ryder Cup.
The Americans are 13-1-1 in Presidents Cup history. The only time they lost was a 20.5-11.5 shellacking in 1998. Since that defeat, the Americans have gone 11-0-1, including 10 straight wins over the Internationals. Of the past 12 Presidents Cups, only the 2019 and 2015 editions saw the International team keep the final deficit within two points.
Here are the last 12 results since the International team’s lone win:
2024: U.S. wins 18.5-11.5
2022: U.S. wins 17.5-12.5
2019: U.S. wins 16-14
2017: U.S. wins 19-11
2015: U.S. wins 15.5-14.5
2013: U.S. wins 18.5-15.5
2011: U.S. wins 19-15
2009: U.S. wins 19.5-14.5
2007: U.S. wins 19.5-14.5
2005: U.S. wins 18.5-15.5
2003: Tie
2000: U.S. wins 21.5-10.5
There are a number of reasons the Americans dominate the Presidents Cup in ways they don’t at the Ryder Cup, and all those reasons should remain apparent this week at Medinah Country Club in Chicago. But one in particular will once again glare its head and give the Internationals a massive mountain to climb.
“I think the American side, every time they play, their world ranking hardly ever goes past 20th, whereas the 12th International player is sometimes 60th in the world,” 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel said in 2012 about the depth of the U.S. side. A year later, after the U.S. won 18.5-15.5, International captain Nick Price said the depth of the American side “absolutely” was the difference.
Schwartzel’s analysis from 15 years ago was as true then as it is now. The American roster is always stacked with star players in the top 20-25 of the Official World Golf Rankings and the Data Golf rankings. In 2022, the U.S. had five players in the top 10 of the OWGR and nine in the top 15. Their lowest-ranked player on that team was Kevin Kisner, who was No. 25 at the time. The Internationals’ top player on the 2022 squad, Hideki Matsuyama, was ranked 17th. Their lowest-ranked player was Taylor Pendrith, who was ranked 109th. (It’s important to note that the 2022 Presidents Cup was unusual because it came just after LIV Golf’s arrival, which meant that Cameron Smith, ranked No. 3 in the world at the time, and Joaquin Niemann could not play after joining the rival league, which zapped the Internationals of needed talent.)
But the story was the same in 2024 when the Americans had the Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 13 and 14 golfers in the world, while the Internationals had just one player in the top 15. Max Homa was the lowest-ranked American (25), while the International side stretched to 60 with Mackenzie Hughes.
At Medinah this week, the Americans will have eight players in the top 11 but two outside the top 25: Patrick Cantlay (28) and rookie Jackson Koivun (57). The Internationals, meanwhile, have just one player in the top 15 (Si Woo Kim, 14) and have five outside the top 50, including two outside the top 80 (Nick Taylor and Christiaan Bezuidenhout).
The Americans’ vaunted depth gives them several advantages, but the most important one is that it ensures that their top players don’t have to be dominant forces for the team to succeed. For example, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has gone 3-5-1 in the Presidents Cup, but the Americans have still won both of those contests handily thanks to Cantlay (7-2-1), Schauffele (7-2), Collin Morikawa (6-2) and Jordan Spieth (5-0 in 2022). The Americans’ depth gives them a buffer that allows them to easily withstand one or two of their stars having an off week. The Internationals, on the other hand, don’t have that benefit. They need Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Scott to rack up points while getting help from players down the roster. But the Internationals haven’t gotten that from their horses. Scott has the most International points in Presidents Cup history, but is 20-28-6 overall. Matsuyama also has a poor record at 9-13-5. That has left the International team facing a problem they don’t have the ability to solve.
For the Internationals to make the Presidents Cup a contest and potentially pull off a historic upset, they need to be able to count on Matsuyama and Scott to deliver at least three to four points each over the four days. If they can get that and Si Woo Kim, who is playing the best golf of anyone on the International side, can also become a pillar, they will be able to give themselves a chance. But if Scott and Matsuyama struggle again, the Internationals will be asking a lot from the likes of Nico Echavarria, Nick Taylor, Bezuidenhout and Ryo Hisatsune in order to keep it close.
The Americans will once again have the talent and depth edge at Medinah. But they often have that at the Ryder Cup, and the Europeans have found a way to overcome that, routinely sending the Americans into the wilderness to search for answers after head-scratching defeats. The Europeans have a cohesion that the International side is still trying to cultivate. That cohesion has galvanized the Europeans and given them an unquantifiable weapon against the more talented (at least on paper) American side.
The Internationals have said they feel they are building something similar. That’s a more difficult task when you have a team built up of players from five different continents who speak different languages, so it’s taking longer. But they believe they are making progress and know that all it takes is one win, one upset, to turn the Presidents Cup into something different.
“You talk to the Europeans, how much they want to beat the Americans, and there is that rivalry there, you can tell, and you can hear it when they talk about it,” Jason Day said of the Ryder Cup ahead of the 2024 Presidents Cup. “That’s America versus Europe, as well. I feel like the way the guys look at it, I think that’s shifted here. I think they’re very driven and passionate about this tournament now. Like I’m looking at Ben (An) and Tom (Kim) now, like there’s guys that — like the young guys all the way to the top guys.
“When you have experience like Adam Scott, you hear them talk, and I think this is his 11th one, so he’s been on the losing end of those for quite a long time. You can hear how much he wants to win one. I think it’ll only take one. If we can get one, I think that’ll change the tide a little bit.”
The tide may one day change at the Presidents Cup. But American golf is in need of a win, and its greatest weapon against the Internationals (and history), says they’ll deliver one come Sunday at Medinah.
