Before we get back to the real business at hand with the third leg of the FedEx Cup Bonanza, er, playoffs, a few words about the upcoming Presidents Cup.
Those few words come straight from William Shakespeare who was born a few hundred years too soon but in his day came up with the perfect description of the upcoming matches at Liberty National:
Much Ado About Nothing.
With apologies to all those involved, sorry, but that’s just the way it is.
It started out with the most boring press conference ever that announced the captain’s choices for the U.S. and International squads.
The U.S. picks were the worst kept secret in golf. Captain Steve Stricker had previously hinted out loud that No. 11 would be in and as it turned out, Charley Hoffman fell from No. 10 to No. 11 after the Dell and being the good sportsman he is, Stricks putt The Hoff on the team.
Well done.
The other pick was even less of a surprise. No way Stricks wasn’t picking his good buddy Phil Mickelson.
Michelson has now been on every sort of U.S. team, Presidents and Ryder Cup since 1994.
For the Internationals, Captain Nick Price dipped deep into the bottom of the pickle barrel and pulled out Emiliano Grillo and Anirban Lahiri.
Just to give you an idea of the depth of the U.S. team, The Hoff is ranked 22nd in the world, Lefty is 29th. On the other side, Grillo is 54th and Larhiri 75th.
The U.S. squad has too much talent to handle, really.
Dustin Johnson (No. 1), Jordan Spieth (No. 2), Justin Thomas (4th), Rickie Fowler (10th) and Brooks Koepka (11th) are just a bit much for a less talented team to swallow. Matt Kuchar (13th), Patrick Reed (19th), Daniel Berger (24th), Kevin Kisner (25th) and Kevin Chappell (27th) still out-rank most of the Internationals.
Speaking of the Internationals, Hideki Matsuyama is their big gun (No. 3) and he hasn’t done much in the playoffs yet. Jason Day (No. 9) is playing his way out of the top 10. Adam Scott, once a top 10 player, has fallen all the way to No. 20. Then you have Marc Leishman (23), Charl Schwartzel (26), Brandon Grace (34), Si Woo Kim (36), Jhonny Vegas (37) and Adam Hadwin (45) along with the aforementioned captain’s picks.
On paper, the U.S. is a heavy favorite.
No much to get excited about.
As The Bard wrote it:
Much Ado About Nothing.
