The next two weeks are important if Australia is to have more than two representatives in the International Presidents Cup side to be played at Muirfield Village in Dublin in Ohio beginning on October 3rd.
The leading ten International (non USA or European) players in the world ranking at the completion of the Deutsche Bank Championship and the Wales Open on September 1st are automatically in the side with team captain Nick Price to name is two wild card selections soon after.
Adam Scott and Jason Day are already assured a place in the team to face the Americans but Marc Leishman (12th), Brett Rumford (17th), Geoff Ogilvy (18th) and Marcus Fraser (19th) are perhaps still outside hopes.
Leishman gets the first of two opportunities this week at the Barclays to force his way into the side by either playing well enough to move inside the top ten in standings on the International list or playing well enough to keep himself in the eye of Price.
By not playing this week’s Johnnie Walker Championship in Scotland, Marcus Fraser appears to have given up any outside hope he might have had but with victory in the event or at next week’s Wales open, Brett Rumford might force his way into calculations.
Ogilvy has struggled for most of this year but if he could find a way to produce two good tournaments over the next two weeks then perhaps his chances of making the International side are not yet forlorn. After all, Ogilvy’s experience in playing the last three Presidents Cup would be of immense value to Price if Ogilvy was to find some late form.
Six of the current automatic selections, Ernie Els, Charles Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Richard Sterne, and Tim Clark, are South Africans, Adam Scott and Jason Day represent Australia, one Argentinean, Angel Cabrera, and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama are currently inside the top ten with Thongchai Jaidee and Leishman next in line.
Given that the current 10th ranked American, Webb Simpson, is 26th ranked in the world compared to the 10th ranked International’s Tim Clark’s 55th, there is a significant disparity between the sides although as the 2012 Ryder Cup and last week’s Solheim Cup have shown there is no such thing as a certainty.
The USA side appear to be as close to a certainty as is possible however.
