VIRGINIA WATER, England – Few, if any, have faced the challenges of putting together a team like Trevor Immelman. The South African had many of his International players pulled away by LIV Golf and for his six captain’s picks this week he was forced to be more creative than he ever could have imagined.
For some, it might not have been creative enough.
Immelman selected five rookies – Taylor Pendrith, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Cam Davis, K.H. Lee and Sebastian Munoz – and Si Woo Kim, who played his only Presidents Cup in 2017.
Although his options were severely impacted by recent defections to LIV Golf by Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann, Immelman has received some criticism from those who viewed Ryan Fox as a better choice for this year’s team.
The long-hitting New Zealander would have been a statistical fit for Quail Hollow and is 47th in the world ranking. Only Lee, at 41st in the world, is ranked higher among Immelman’s picks, with Pendrith coming in at No. 116. Fox is also having a career year on the DP World Tour with a victory (Ras Al Khaimah Cham), two runner-up finishes and a third-place showing in just 14 starts this season.
“I thought I’d have a pretty good chance, especially with a couple of guys not being available, but it is what it is,” said Fox, who opened in 1-over 73 at the BMW PGA Championship.
The Kiwi added that he spoke with Immelman about the potential of being a pick a few weeks ago.
“I didn’t play a lot after The Open and the PGA Tour guys were building to the playoffs, so I was sort of out of sight, out of mind, I guess,” he said. “Had it been six weeks earlier, the pick, I would have been hard to leave out. Bit of motivation for next time.”
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