4 Highlights from the 2022 Presidents Cup
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On Sunday the 25th of September, this year’s Presidents Cup came to a close. This is one of the biggest charitable events in the game of golf, and it featured a great matchup between two teams of highly ranked players, twelve from the U.S. and twelve international. Read on below for the highlights of the 2022 Presidents Cup.
What is the Presidents Cup?
The Presidents Cup is a biennial golf event that pits an American team against a team comprising players from the rest of the world, excluding Europe. The 2022 Presidents Cup was the 14th edition of the event since it began in 1994.
The 2022 Presidents Cup was held at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event included a total of 30 matches, including singles matches, doubles alternate shot matches, and doubles best ball matches.
Another American victory
The American team, captained by hall-of-famer Davis Love III, won this year’s event 17.5 to 12.5 points. This brought the American team their ninth victory in a row and their twelfth since the event began.
The U.S. team was composed of six players selected for having the most FedEx Cup points since 2019, as well as six additional players chosen by the team captain. The final roster included Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Cameron Young, and Kevin Kisner.
Disruption from LIV golf
This year’s Presidents Cup teams were disrupted due to LIV Golf, a new Saudi Arabia-funded professional golf tour. The first LIV Golf tour began in June of this year and included several major players from America and other countries throughout the world. The new tour has clashed heavily with the PGA tour, and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan stated in early 2020 that anyone participating in the LIV Golf tour would be banned from PGA tour events.
Due to the conflict between the two tours, several well-known golf champions were unable to attend the Presidents Cup, a PGA event. This affected which players were ultimately part of the event.
Rookie Max Homa
One standout performance from the event came from American rookie Max Homa, who attended the event for the first time. Homa went a perfect 4-0 in his matches and was a driving factor for the American victory. Homa nailed some huge putts during the event and put on a show for the Americans and everyone else watching at the event and at home.
Earnings for charity
The Presidents Cup is a unique event in golf in that there is no prize money and it’s an entirely nonprofit event. Each player who competes in the event receives $150,000 to donate to the charity of their choice. This year, the event’s total charitable contributions numbered more than $2 million, with a large portion going towards local charities in Charlotte.
Some notable donations included $575,000 to the Charlotte Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative and substantial amounts to the Augustine Literacy Project, Charlotte Family Housing, NXT/CLT and Renaissance West Community.