Eight-time Presidents Cup participant Adam Scott is in position to make an International Team record ninth appearance after leaping seven spots to No. 4 on the International Team standings with a runner-up finish at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide over the weekend. On the U.S. Team standings, Patrick Cantlay proved unbeatable at Muirfield Village Golf Club with a final-round 64 to capture his second career PGA TOUR victory and jump from No. 9 to No. 6.
The Presidents Cup will return to Melbourne, Australia and The Royal Melbourne Golf Club for the third time, December 9-15, 2019, when the International Team, led by Captain Ernie Els, will take on the U.S. Team led by Captain Tiger Woods.
The runner-up finish was Scott’s second of the season and represented his fifth top-10 result in 12 starts. Scott, 38, has competed in every Presidents Cup since 2003 and has been an automatic qualifier each time except 2009, when he was one of two captain’s picks for Greg Norman’s team.
“I feel good. For sure, everything I’ve been doing is moving in the right direction,” Scott said.
The last time the Presidents Cup was contested at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in 2011, Scott recorded a 2-3 record.
“The biggest thing I’d love is for this to be a home game as far as the crowd is concerned, favouritism if you would,” Scott said in the Golf Australia Inside the Ropes podcast last week. “That will help us out tremendously. If we can just somehow make [the U.S. Team] feel a little bit uncomfortable, that’d be really good.”
Elsewhere on the International Team standings, Marc Leishman remains in the No. 1 spot with a solo-fifth result at the Memorial, which marks his first top-10 finish in a stroke-play event on the PGA TOUR since February. Just behind him in solo sixth, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama moved up one position to No. 2 in the standings. It was a timely return to form for the three-time Presidents Cup participant, who collected his first top-10 finish since THE PLAYERS Championship in March.
After making his Presidents Cup debut in 2017, Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo is back in contention following a T9 result at the Memorial Tournament to move from No. 17 to No. 13 in the standings.
In total, four Aussies are in position for one of the eight automatic qualifying spots that will be distributed on 19 August. Leishman (No. 1), Scott (No. 4), Cameron Smith (No. 7), and Jason Day (No. 8) are all hoping for the opportunity to compete on home soil, with Smith in search of his Presidents Cup debut. Since the inception of the Presidents Cup in 1994, no less than three Australians have competed in a single Presidents Cup.
While Scott hopes to bring a plethora of experience to the International Team, Patrick Cantlay is one step closer to qualifying for his first Presidents Cup team after the 27-year-old won the Memorial Tournament in comeback fashion to join the coveted top 8 at No. 6 in the standings.
Cantlay’s win is the highlight of an already stellar season marked by eight top-10 finishes in 14 starts, which includes a runner-up at the Shriners Hospitals of Children Open – the site of his maiden PGA TOUR victory – and a T3 finish at the PGA Championship.
At the previous week’s Charles Schwab Challenge, Kevin Na moved into Presidents Cup contention by claiming his third PGA TOUR title and vaulting from No. 36 to No. 17 in the standings. Having competed full time on the PGA TOUR since 2004, Na is looking to represent the United States for the first time in a team event.
The top 5 in the U.S. Team standings remained unchanged, with Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka occupying the top two spots, respectively, followed by Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and Matt Kuchar.
Following a missed cut at the PGA Championship, U.S. Captain Woods got back on track with a T9 finish at the Memorial Tournament highlighted by a final-round 67. Woods’ fourth top-10 finish in his eighth start of the season moved him one spot up in the standings to No. 10.
With his third consecutive top-10 result, Jordan Spieth moved five more spots in the standings to No. 28. Spieth owns an overall Presidents Cup record of 8-5-1 and is a perfect 5-0-0 in the Foursomes format.
The top 15 players in the International and U.S. Presidents Cup Team Standings as of June 3, 2019 are listed below.
INTERNATIONAL
Rank Last Week Player Country Points
1. 1 Marc Leishman Australia 152.62
1. 1 Marc Leishman Australia 152.62
2. 3 Hideki Matsuyama Japan 136.36
3. 2 Louis Oosthuizen South Africa 133.13
4. 11 Adam Scott Australia 132.17
5. 4 Haotong Li China 118.34
6. 5 C.T Pan Chinese Taipei 114.94
7. 6 Cameron Smith Australia 107.08
8. 7 Jason Day Australia 102.85
9. 8 Justin Harding South Africa 102.04
10. 9 Abraham Ancer Mexico 97.99
11. 10 Sung Kang Korea 94.05
12. 12 Jazz Janewattananond Thailand 85.61
13. 17 Emiliano Grillo Argentina 82.22
14. 13 Shugo Imahira Japan 81.75
15. 15 Si Woo Kim Korea 80.95
UNITED STATES
Rank Last Week Player Points
1. 1 Dustin Johnson 6,327
2. 2 Brooks Koepka 6,116
3. 3 Justin Thomas 5,359
4. 4 Xander Schauffele 5,279
5. 5 Matt Kuchar 5,099
6. 9 Patrick Cantlay 4,816
7. 6 Bryson DeChambeau 4,546
8. 8 Rickie Fowler 4,309
9. 7 Tony Finau 4,282
10. 11 Tiger Woods 3,783
11. 10 Gary Woodland 3,684
12. 12 Phil Mickelson 3,521
13. 13 Webb Simpson 3,458
14. 14 Charles Howell III 3,134
15. 15 Kevin Kisner 3,130
Junior Presidents Cup
The second edition of the Junior Presidents Cup will take place on Sunday, December 8 and Monday, December 9 at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club, with 24 of the world’s top junior players, excluding Europe, competing in the newest Presidents Cup tradition that was launched in 2017. Australia’s Stuart Appleby will captain the International Team while Justin Leonard will lead the U.S. Team.
Australia’s Karl Vilips, who was a member of the 2017 team, leading the International Team standings. Vilips is one of two Aussies in the top 12 of the standings and is joined by Joshua Greer (No. 11). At No. 2 in the standings, Wilco Nienaber is the one of seven South Africans who are currently in position to qualify.
The U.S. Team will be made up of the leading 12 qualified players based on the Rolex AJGA Rankings as of September 5, 2019. The International Team will be made up of the leading 12 qualified players based on the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ (WAGR™) as of September 5, 2019.
The top 12 players for the International and U.S. Teams as of June 3, 2019 are listed below.
INTERNATIONAL
Rank Player Country
1. Karl Vilips Australia
1. Karl Vilips Australia
2. Wilco Nienaber South Africa
3. Jayden Schaper South Africa
4. Kartik Sharma India
5. Martin Vorster South Africa
6. Samuel Simpson South Africa
7. Christo Lamprecht South Africa
8. Chaun-Tai Lin Chinese Taipei
9. Nikhil Gopal South Africa
10. Jang Hyun Lee Korea
11. Joshua Greer Australia
12. Casey Jarvis South Africa
UNITED STATES
Rank Player State
1. Michael Thorbjornsen Massachusetts
2. Canon Claycomb Kentucky
3. Jackson Van Paris North Carolina
4. Stephen Campbell Jr. Texas
5. J. Holland Humphries Texas
6. Alexander Yang California
7. Vishnu Sadagopan Texas
8. Gordon Sargent Alabama
9. Drew Salyers Ohio
10. Nicholas Dunlap South Carolina
11. Ian Seibers Washington
12. Maxwell Moldovan Ohio
International Team eligibility criteria
The top eight (8) international players (excluding those eligible for the European Ryder Cup team) from the Presidents Cup International Team Points List which shall be Official World Golf Ranking points accumulated in the time period from August 27, 2018 (Dell Technologies Championship) through August 18, 2019 (BMW Championship).
Four Captain’s selections will be made at a to-be-determined later date.
U.S. Team eligibility criteria
The top eight (8) U.S. PGA TOUR members who have earned the most FedExCup points from September 11, 2017 (2017 BMW Championship) through 2019 BMW Championship, weighted as follows:
(a) 2017 BMW Championship through 2018 TOUR Championship: 1 FedExCup point = 1 point
(b) First event of the 2018-2019 season through 2019 BMW Championship: 1 FedExCup point = 2 points
Four Captain’s selections will be made at a to-be-determined later date.
A four-time winner of the Australian Golf Media Awards, including Best Photojournalism, Best Opinion, Best Column and Best Photographic Presentation, Inside Golf Group Editor Richard Fellner is the quintessential Golf Tragic, having played the game for over 50 years (but has never gotten any better!) He has played and reviewed courses all over the world, and has interviewed many of the great players of the game (including Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Greg Norman). Richard is a member of both the Australian Golf Media Association and the Golf Society of Australia, and has been a featured guest on many Australian "sports talk" radio shows and networks, including ABC Grandstand, SEN 1116, Melbourne Talk Radio 1377, 2GB and others.
Follow 
