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The post Why Quail Hollow’s unusual setup gave this U.S. foursomes team an advantage appeared first on Golf.

Collin Morikawa’s ball-striking prowess is undisputed.

The 25-year-old had a down year by his standards: He only finished 3rd in SG: Approach The Green on the PGA Tour last season.

Because of the unique rerouting to Quail Hollow at this year’s Presidents Cup, Morikawa and partner Cameron Young were able to take advantage of his strength by having Morikawa tee off on even-numbered holes in their 2-and-1 foursomes win over Tom Kim and K.H. Lee on Thursday.

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The routing of Quail Hollow for this week has every par-3 as an even-numbered hole and two out of the three par-5s. The one par-5 that isn’t an even hole? The 7th which was very reachable in the opening round, playing to just 527 yards, downwind. Morikawa put the second shot on that hole to 17 feet for eagle from 171 yards.

In all, Morikawa hit the approach to the green on 15 of 17 holes in the match. That’s all eight of the odd numbered par-4s, the four par-3s and all three par-5s —the 7th being an attempt under GIR. He hit six of them within 10 feet.

This also played into Young’s strength as one of the premier driver’s on the PGA Tour. He was second on the Tour in SG: Off-The-Tee.

“This course really sets up to where, like, if you play the odds or you play the evens, you hit the majority of a certain shot,” Morikawa said after the match. “Cam hit a lot of drivers. I hit a lot of irons. That’s kind of what you describe our golf games like. We were able to feed off that.”

It’s not a strategy that can only benefit strong iron players and strong drivers, it can also benefit stronger putters.

Jordan Spieth teed off on the odd holes and set himself up to hit nine of his and Justin Thomas’ birdie putts.

Spieth struggled on the greens last season, but has finished in the top-10 of SG: Putting three times in his career, and was known for outstanding putting in the run that led him to three majors in as many seasons from 2015 to 2017.

Thomas is certainly not weak with a flatstick, however, and Spieth said the decision of who would play odds and evens wasn’t an easy one.

“We had a really hard time deciding who was going to go odds and evens,” he said. “We didn’t decide until late last night. If we got the chance again, we might even switch it.”

The post Why Quail Hollow’s unusual setup gave this U.S. foursomes team an advantage appeared first on Golf.

The post Who’s playing in the Presidents Cup? Meet the U.S. and International teams appeared first on Golf.

The post Who’s playing in the Presidents Cup? Meet the U.S. and International teams appeared first on Golf.

The stage is set for for the 2022 Presidents Cup where 24 of the PGA Tour’s top golfers — 12 from the United States and 12 from around the world (except for Europe) — will meet for the biennial matches.

Due to the pandemic, this will be the first Presidents Cup since 2019, when the Tiger Woods-captained U.S. team narrowly edged the Ernie Els-led International squad with a miraculous come-from-behind win in Sunday singles.

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The U.S. team holds a dominating 10-1-1 record in the matches and most expect a similarly dominate performance with LIV Golf defectors being ineligible to play in this year’s event and taking the hardest toll on Trevor Immelman’s International team.

Without further ado, let us introduce you to the players who are playing this year.

United States Team

*denotes captain’s pick

Captain: Davis Love III

Love was a six-time member of the U.S. Presidents Cup team and compiled a 16-8-4 record in those matches. Love — who was born in Charlotte, N.C., home of this week’s host, Quail Hollow Club — won 21 times on the PGA Tour, including one major win at the 1997 PGA Championship. He also notably won the 2015 Wyndham Championship at the age of 51, becoming the third-oldest winner in PGA Tour history. Love was an assistant captain on the 2013, 2015 and 2017 Presidents Cup teams and captained the 2012 and 2016 Ryder Cup teams.

Sam Burns

Career Presidents Cup record: First appearance

Burns may have been overshadowed by close friend Scottie Scheffler in the early part of the 2021-22 season, but the Louisianan had a break out year himself, winning three times, including taking down Scheffler in a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge in May. This will be his first appearance at either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup.

Patrick Cantlay

Record: 3-2-0 in one appearance (2019)

Cantlay had another solid year in 2022, winning once while defending his crown at the BMW Championship in Wilmington and teaming up with Xander Schauffele to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He played all of his matches in 2019 with Schauffele and figures to do so again. Cantlay was also very successful at last year’s Ryder Cup where he compiled a 3-0-1 record at Whistling Straits, the one tie coming in the only match he wasn’t paired with Schauffele.

Tony Finau

Record: 0-1-3 in one appearance (2019)

The big-hitting Finau had a slow start to the season before catching fire over the summer, notching five top-5s in a stretch of eight events, including back-to-back wins at the 3M Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic in July. He somewhat surprisingly did not notch a win in his only Presidents Cup appearance in 2019. He only had one loss in four matches, however, and he’ll be looking for a new partner as both his partners from 2019, Matt Kuchar and Bryson DeChambeau, are not playing this year. He’s picked up three wins in his two Ryder Cups in 2018 and 2021.

Max Homa*

Record: First appearance

Homa comes in as perhaps the hottest player in the matches. He won in dramatic fashion last week at the PGA Tour season opening Fortinet Championship, holing a chip shot from off the 18th green to win. He also finished a career best tied for fifth in the Tour Championship in his previous start. This will be his first team match appearance.

Billy Horschel*

Record: First appearance

If you were shocked to learn Horschel is making his first ever appearance in either the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup this week, you’re not alone. Horschel’s career resume includes seven PGA Tour titles, including this year’s Memorial Tournament, and the 2014 FedEx Cup. He’s had a mixed bag of a season, missing four of last eight cuts on the PGA Tour, but with the win in Columbus sandwiched between two of them. He did earn a top 10 in his most recent appearance during his title defense at the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship.

Kevin Kisner*

Record: 2-0-2 in one appearance (2017)

Kisner is the oldest player on Team USA’s roster and has become known as somewhat of a match play savant, including a win at the 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and owning an undefeated record at the 2017 Presidents Cup. His best finish this past season was a second at — you guessed it — the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but he did rack up five other top 10s. Kisner will also be looking for a new partner as he played with Phil Mickelson in all three team matches in 2017.

Collin Morikawa*

Record: First appearance

Morikawa came out just as hot as his first three years on Tour to begin this season with five straight finishes of T7 or better, but he fell back to earth a little toward the end of the year, his first on Tour without a win. Although he did lead the U.S. Open through 36 holes, he struggled Saturday and was out of contention by Sunday. The two-time major winner, who is still just 25 years old, showed better form at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August with a T5 finish, but needed to be one of Love’s six captain’s selections to make it to Quail Hollow. He led the U.S. team in qualifying for the Ryder Cup last year and went 3-0-1 at Whistling Straits, his lone tie coming in singles.

Xander Schauffele

Record: 3-2-0 in one appearance (2019)

Like Finau, Schauffele also had a strong end to the season, finishing in the top 20 in all but one of his last 11 events. Again, like Finau, he notched back-to-back wins at the Travelers Championship and Genesis Scottish Open. He also teamed with Cantlay for a team win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and figures to see a lot of his close friend whom he has a 4-2-0 record with in Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup matches.

Scottie Scheffler

Record: First appearance

Scheffler has come a long way from being a captain’s selection at last year’s Ryder Cup. The Texan notched his first four PGA Tour wins last season, including a major victory at the Masters, and earned the World No. 1 ranking. While he didn’t come away with the FedEx Cup title, PGA Tour Player of The Year honors are a decent consolation — as well as the $5.75 million he got for finishing T2 at East Lake. He went undefeated, going 2-0-1 at Whistling Straits, teaming with Bryson DeChambeau in two four-ball matches. He also beat Kisner at this year’s WGC-Match Play.

Jordan Spieth*

Record: 8-5-1 in three appearances (2013, 2015, 2017)

After missing the 2019 matches, Spieth is back on the U.S. team at just the right time. With stalwarts like Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed absent this year, Spieth and Justin Thomas are the only players with multiple Presidents Cup matches under their belt coming into the week. The 29-year-old notched a win at the RBC Heritage this season and finished a respectable tied for 13th in the FedEx Cup. He carries a career 16-12-4 record in U.S. team cup matches and played with Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed in all of his partner matches in 2015 and 2017. At last year’s Ryder Cup, he paired most often with good buddy Justin Thomas.

Justin Thomas

Record: 6-2-2 in two appearances (2017, 2019)

Thomas may not have met all of his preseason goals, but he notched 11 top 10s last season and his second major title at the PGA Championship. He brings with him the most impressive U.S. team match record, going 12-4-3 across two Presidents Cups and two Ryder Cups. In his two previous Presidents Cups, he paired with Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler and Daniel Berger, all of whom are not playing this week. He figures to play more with Spieth as he did twice at Whistling Straits.

Cameron Young*

Record: First appearance

Young had a debut season to remember, notching six top-three finishes and was one of two rookies to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship. Those top finishes also include just missing out on the playoff at the PGA Championship by one stroke, and the memorable eagle finish at the Open Championship at St. Andrews to earn the runner-up spot.

International Team

*denotes captain’s pick

Captain: Trevor Immelman (South Africa)

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Immelman is the youngest captain in International team history at just 42 years old. The South African is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, including one major, holding off Tiger Woods to win the 2008 Masters. He’s also picked up six victories around the world on the DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour. He’s a two-time veteran of the Presidents Cup and served as assistant captain under Ernie Els in 2019. Many fans will know him now for his broadcasting as he is expected to take over as the lead analyst for CBS’s golf coverage, following Nick Faldo.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout* (South Africa)

Record: First appearance

Bezuidenhout had a solid rookie year, making 20 cuts in 24 starts on the PGA Tour with 10 top-25 finishes. He’s perhaps better known in Europe, having a breakout year in 2020 while notching three victories including the Alfred Dunhill Championship. His best finish on the PGA Tour in 2022 was a T2 showing at the John Deere Classic and he advanced to the second FedEx Cup Playoff event at the BMW Championship. He’s one of five Presidents Cup first-timers selected by Immelman.

Corey Conners (Canada)

Record: First appearance

Conners played his way to the Tour Championship for the third time of his career thanks to 20 made cuts in 25 starts and four top-10 finishes. One of those top 10s came last month at the BMW Championship where he finished in T5, but he missed the cut last week in the PGA Tour’s season-opening Fortinet Championship. The Canadian has one win under his belt on the PGA Tour, coming at the 2019 Valero Texas Open.

Cam Davis* (Australia)

Record: First appearance

Davis notched five top-10s in 25 starts last season on the PGA Tour. His best golf came toward the end of the season when he made his last 10 cuts in a row. His best year on Tour came a season ago when he made 21 of 26 cuts and notched his debut win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. His cuts-made streak broke last week at the Fortinet Championship where rounds of 74 and 70 sent him to Charlotte early.

Sungjae Im (South Korea)

Record: 3-1-1 in one appearance (2019)

The iron man of the PGA Tour, nobody plays more golf than Sungjae Im. Im had another strong season on Tour in 2021-22, winning for the second time at the Shriners Children’s Open and finishing strong with three T2 finishes in his last five events, including at the Tour Championship. The World No. 19 will be heavily relied upon as one of just four veterans on the International team with Presidents Cup experience. All three of his partners from Royal Melbourne — Adam Hadwin, Abraham Ancer and Cameron Smith — are not on the team this year.

Tom Kim (South Korea)

Record: First appearance

Kim burst onto the scene in 2022, finishing third at the Genesis Scottish Open, seventh at the Rocket Mortgage, and then capturing his first win at the Wyndham Championship in August to secure his PGA Tour membership and even qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He was only a special temporary member when he won, but had earned enough points to get his full status for 2023. He’s now exempt through 2024 and he auto-qualified for the International team.

K. H. Lee* (South Korea)

Record: First appearance

Lee has two PGA Tour titles and both have come at the AT&T Byron Nelson. At this year’s tournament, Lee outdueled Jordan Spieth down the stretch to defend his title. The rest of his season wasn’t much to write home about, with almost as many missed cuts (7) as top-25s (8), until he used T20 and T5 finishes in the first two Playoff events to catapult his way into his first Tour Championship appearance.

Hideki Matsuyama (Japan)

Record: 6-7-4 in four appearances (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)

Hard to believe the 30-year-old Matuyama is about to start his fifth Presidents Cup, but the Japanese star heads to Quail Hollow as the alpha of the International squad. It was another good year for the World No. 17 on the PGA Tour, finishing 11th in the FedEx Cup after winning twice, with one of those victories coming last fall in his home country at the Zozo Championship. Only one of his previous partners, Adam Scott, is on the roster this week and they haven’t played together since Matsuyama’s Presidents Cup debut in 2013.

Sebastián Muñoz* (Colombia)

Record: First appearance

Munoz hasn’t quite played up to the same level as he did in his breakout season in 2019-20 when he got his first win at the Sanderson Farms Championship and then went on to finish 8th in the final FedEx Cup standings thanks to a solid performance at East Lake, but his 2021-22 campaign was enough to earn a captain’s pick. He had two runner-up finishes on the season.

Si Woo Kim* (South Korea)

Record: 1-2-0 in one appearance (2017)

Kim was the only one of Immelman’s captain’s selections with previous Presidents Cup experience, winning a four-ball match and losing in foursomes and singles matches in New Jersey in 2017. That season was also the year of his signature win, The Players Championship. He won in early 2021 at The American Express, but has not played well as of late, only recording one top 10s in 21-22, last fall at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Both of his partners from 2017 are not on this year’s team.

Taylor Pendrith* (Canada)

Record: First appearance

Normally for a rookie, an injury can be devastating. Taylor Pendrith missed time between The Players in March and the Barbasol Championship in July because of a rip injury, but it didn’t stop him from earning nine top 25s in 16 starts. Since coming back from the injury, Pendrith finished worse than T13th once in six starts, including a tie for second at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a tie for eighth at the BMW Championship.

Mito Pereira (Chile)

Record: First appearance

Heartbreak at the PGA Championship overshadowed what was otherwise a very respectable debut season on the PGA Tour for Pereira. He opened the year with a solo third at the Fortinet Championship and had two other top 10s, including at Southern Hills. Of course his season will be remembered for the leading the PGA through 71 holes, only to hit his tee shot in the water on 18, leading to a double bogey and missing the playoff. Pereira was rumored to be joining LIV Golf, but reportedly is waiting to jump so he could play in the Presidents Cup.

Adam Scott (Australia)

Record: 16-22-6 in nine appearances

The 42-year old hasn’t missed a Presidents Cup since 2001 and is by far the most experienced player on either team, having more appearances than the entire International team combined and as many as the entire American team combined. His 10th appearance will break his own record for the Internationals. He also has a chance to tie or pass Ernie Els’ International record of 21 points this week. Aging like fine wine, the 42-year-old didn’t win on the PGA Tour this year, but only missed two cuts all year and had five top 10s. His back-to-back T5s to start the FedEx Cup Playoffs helped him play his way into the Tour Championship from outside the top 70 at the end of the regular season. Matsuyama is the only teammate his paired with before on the International roster.

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The post Despite strong interest in LIV, Cameron Young will remain on PGA Tour appeared first on Golf.

The PGA Tour will retain the talents of one its most promising young stars.

Rookie Cameron Young told reporters at last week’s Tour Championship that he has decided to continue competing on the PGA Tour instead of defecting to LIV Golf.

“Frankly, I have decided to stay,” Young said, according to Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner. “It’s a really difficult situation because it’s not anything that anyone really wanted to happen. I think it wasn’t meant to be this hostile between the two.”

Young, the runaway favorite to win Rookie of the Year, had previously been reported as a potential defector to the Saudi-backed tour. However, after a slew of changes to the Tour were announced last week, Young has decided to continue competing on the establishment circuit.

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“With some of those changes coming, that’s what really helped me decide to stay and pursue those goals that I have for myself, like making the Presidents Cup team or Ryder Cup team and winning a major, when all of that is just uncertain if you go,” Young said. “It’s a tough place for me because I’m very young. There’s a lot of factors to it.”

LIV Golf is expected to announce their next crop of commitments early this week. Among those expected to be announced are Joaquin Niemann, Harold Varner III, Anirban Lahiri, Marc Leishman, Cameron Tringale and reigning Open champion Cameron Smith.

“Frankly, throughout the whole process with them I was very interested,” Young said. “I wish it hadn’t come along at this specific place in my career.”

Although Young did not earn a victory during his first season on Tour, he put together one of the most impressive rookie campaigns in recent memory, notching five runner-up finishes and earning over $6 million. He was one of just two rookies to reach the Tour Championship, and he finished 19th in the final FedEx Cup standings.

“I expected to play well and have chances to win tournaments,” Young said. “I kinda expected to win one. I feel like once a year, everything goes my way and I beat everybody, and that didn’t happen this season.”

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The post The ingenious idea Cameron Young’s dad used to create one of golf’s best swings appeared first on Golf.

The post The ingenious idea Cameron Young’s dad used to create one of golf’s best swings appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Play Smart, a column to help you play smarter, better golf from Game Improvement Editor Luke Kerr-Dineen (who you can follow on Twitter right here).

Cameron Young seemed to miss the memo that, for most players, playing well in major championships takes some time. The PGA Tour rookie finished third at the PGA Championship, and flew out of the gates with an opening 64 during his first-ever Open Championship start on Thursday.

At the time of writing, Young was the low man of the morning wave with an eight-under 64, and the solo leader of the tournament.

Young has come in for a lot of plaudits this season, and for good reason. He ranks fourth on Tour in both ball speed and club head speed, and second in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. With five top threes to go along with it, and now another good start in a major, he’s a rising star on Tour.

How did he get there? It all started with his father and coach David Young, the head professional at Sleepy Hollow Country Club and an accomplished player in the MET section PGA in his own right. It takes a lot to help a player like his son get to the very top, but he revealed to us a few tips that worked for his son — and may work for yours.

1. Play other sports

One of David Young’s best pieces of advice for juniors has nothing to do with golf. In fact, it has the opposite to do with golf.

“We played a lot of other sports,” he says. “Hockey and baseball were the main ones, we played those right up until high school.”

That’s when golf started taking over, David says, but insists Cam’s ability to excel in golf rests on a foundation built by other sports.

“Playing team sports toughens you up a little bit, having other people rely on you to play your role or play your position,” he says. “Obviously there is also lots of hand-eye coordination and physical fitness stuff that comes with playing other sports but is hard to train.”

As for specific sports he suggests juniors play?

“Anybody who wants to get good at golf, they should make them play hockey,” he says. “A lot of sequence motions and movements are very similar in hockey…Cam built up his legs and his arms and his hands to where he could generate a lot of speed with the golf club.”

Considering he’s currently averaging more than 185 mph ball speed on tour, safe to say it worked.

But that’s because it was paired with another idea that, frankly, I think is rather ingenious.

2. Get the grip good

While Cam was building his strength and hand-eye coordination playing other sports, his father was keeping a subtle but careful eye on his technique.

“We just tried to let him be athletic with his golf, we didn’t get very technical at all at an early age,” he says. “Really, it was only the real basics.”

King among those basics is the grip, David says. At a young age, he placed a training grip (like you see above) on Cam’s driver and 7-iron so he’d get the comfortable with the feeling of a neutral grip, without having to think about it.

“He had to hold the club pretty well, and when you do that, it is amazing how much the rest of the stuff in your swing falls into place,” he says. “It meant he had pretty good mechanics from a young age. We started cleaning it up when he was about 11 or 12, and we didn’t start getting really picky with his mechanics until college.”

Whatever they did, it worked. Young hit all 18 greens on Thursday and set the pace with a 64 that could prove crucial come Sunday.

The post The ingenious idea Cameron Young’s dad used to create one of golf’s best swings appeared first on Golf.