Seven months ago it seemed like Nick Taylor would be a lock to make the Presidents Cup team. He had just won the WM Phoenix Open and jumped to 28th in the Official World Golf Ranking. And that win came on the heels of an emotional victory at the RBC Canadian Open in June 2023, making him the first Canadian to win the country’s men’s national open in seven decades.
The latter was such a massive accomplishment, Golf Canada even incorporated Taylor’s celebratory silhouette into its logo for the 2024 tournament.
This is why it was so shocking to see Taylor left off this month’s Presidents Cup team, which will play a home game against the Americans at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Quebec on Sept. 26-29.
Captain Mike Weir announced his six captain’s picks to round out the 12-player International squad on Tuesday, and Taylor and fellow Canadian Adam Hadwin were notably omitted. Weir famously became the first Canadian to win a men’s major when he won the 2003 Masters, and leaving a couple of his countrymen off the Presidents Cup roster was not an easy decision for him.
“I can’t tell you how tough those calls were. Those guys, I respect those guys, I love those guys, and they’re like brothers. You know, they’re Canadians, and the toughest part of being a captain was those calls,” Weir said Tuesday on Golf Channel, fighting back tears. “I have a lot of respect for them and even have more respect for them now the way they handled it.”
On the U.S. side, captain Jim Furyk went right down the list, picking Nos. 7-12 in the points standings to add to his roster of six auto-qualifiers, but Weir had a few surprises in his back pocket. There weren’t any Canadians among the Internationals’ six auto-qualifiers, but three — Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith — were named to the team on Tuesday, making it the first time three Canadians have ever been on the squad. Si Woo Kim, Min Woo Lee and Christiaan Bezuidenhout were Weir’s other captain’s picks. Kim and Hughes were 14th and 15th, respectively, in the standings, and they leap-frogged Australian Cam Davis (eighth) and Taylor (12th). Hadwin was 13th.
Despite Taylor’s win in Phoenix in February, he’s recorded just one top-20 in regular stroke-play events since. He also missed the cut at all four majors (although he qualified for the Olympics, tying for 30th).
Second-guessing Presidents Cup picks: Snubs, shocks, mistakes, no JT?!
“He was looking very good to make the team, and as it happens in golf, sometimes you go through a little spell that’s not your greatest,” Weir said. “It was a super tough decision for me but one that was well thought through, and through a number of different analytical things and gut feelings and all kinds of things, it came to that conclusion, but it was very difficult.”
Hadwin had a similar story. He had five top 10s last season — including a third at the Memorial — but failed to finish in the top 20 in his last eight starts. Hadwin was on the Presidents Cup team in 2017 and 2019, but he’ll now miss his second in a row.
“Again, both those calls to those guys were extremely difficult, and like I said earlier when I was talking to some of the Golf Channel guys, the way they handled it just showed me a lot about their character, which I already knew, but even made me respect them even more,” Weir said. “I just told them that they’re going to be on these Cups going forward, and stay engaged with this Presidents Cup team because Adam has been on a couple of teams, he knows how special they are, and wants to be on them. So did Nick.”