For those of you who haven’t been keeping a close eye on the Presidents Cup standings, SA golfers are dominating the potential International team with seven players in the top 12.
It has been a stellar past few months for South African golf, with winners of the likes of Ernie Els, Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen, Richard Sterne, Branden Grace and Darren Fichardt on the world’s major tours, so it is no surprise to find 9 SA players in the world’s top 100, and 13 in the top 130.
With the world rankings being the basis on which the team is selected, captain Nick Price could almost find himself with a team composed fully of just SA and Australian players, with 43-year-old Hiroyuki Fujita of Japan the only player in the top 14 not from those two countries.
This could make the two captain’s picks for the October 3-6 event at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, quite tricky: base it on the rankings, or bring in a few players to appeal to the enormous Asian market? Who’d be in Price’s shoes for that one….?
Fred Couples will be captaining the the US Team at Jack Nicklaus’s famed venue, and it is a side that is currently looking incredibly strong.
The latest standings are:
INTERNATIONALS:
1 Oosthuizen, Louis
2 Scott, Adam
3 Schwartzel, Charl
4 Els, Ernie
5 Grace, Branden
6 Day, Jason
7 Coetzee, George
8 Senden, John
9 Ogilvy, Geoff
10 Fujita, Hiroyuki
11 Clark, Tim
12 Sterne, Richard
13 Fraser, Marcus
14 Jaidee, Thongchai
15 Choi, K.J.
16 Chalmers, Greg
17 Fichardt, Darren
18 de Jonge, Brendon
19 Bae, Sang-Moon
20 Wiratchant, Thaworn
US
1 Snedeker, Brandt – 10,891,446
2 Woods, Tiger – 8,506,733
3 Kuchar, Matt – 8,072,398
4 Mahan, Hunter – 7,709,123
5 Mickelson, Phil – 6,896,541
6 Johnson, Dustin – 5,969,734
7 Watson, Bubba – 5,906,597
8 Simpson, Webb – 5,705,152
9 Bradley, Keegan – 5,595,045
10 Stricker, Steve – 5,476,021
11 Haas, Bill – 5,422,551
12 Dufner, Jason – 5,354,984
13 Johnson, Zach – 4,874,484
14 Garrigus, Robert – 4,794,956
15 Watney, Nick – 4,661,587
16 Piercy, Scott – 4,395,523
17 Furyk, Jim – 4,231,415
18 Fowler, Rickie – 4,210,393
19 Thompson, Michael – 3,893,614
20 Howell III, Charles – 3,824,984
