TELFER’S TAKE 8.9.26

Not so long ago the sporting year was neatly divided into two seasons, essentially comprising winter sports, then as the weather warmed up summer sports dominated the sporting calendar for the next six months.

However, the advent of huge prize money infused into many top line sports effectively smudged out those two distinct calendar periods. Now, companies and/or sponsors tipping tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars into big-time global sporting events want exposure for their products and brands not just for a mere six months a year but for the whole twelve. This has forced many sports to add more and more events to their respective sporting schedules, much to the chagrin of many competitors, in particular from physical contact sports whose competitors, with a certain amount of justification, complain of burn out and fatigue. The lack of down time and rest also adds to the chance of injury as well.

Even a non-contact sport like golf is not exempt from these concerns. It’s not uncommon to hear top players, in particular, wanting to cut back on their playing schedules, citing fatigue.

But at the end of the day, you can’t have it both ways. If you want the big dollars on offer, you have to turn up more often than you might think is fair.

So, there is an odd irony attached to one of the biggest golfing events of the year, now less than two weeks away. The Presidents Cup is where 24 of the game’s leading players will go head-to-head, but the players won’t receive a cent in prize money. Like its big brother, the Ryder Cup, these two team events, among the most followed events in all of golf, are about playing for your country. Money just doesn’t come into it.

While the Presidents Cup doesn’t have the history or drama that we associate with a Ryder Cup and it’s true the Americans have dominated the Presidents Cup, winning 13 of the 15 events to date, the International team has over the past decade become a lot more competitive.

This year, the International team has 5 of the world’s top 50 golfers, headed by Si Woo Kim from South Korea ranked 13th in the world, followed by Ryan Fox ranked 25 th and Hideki Matsuyama at number 26. All up, 9 of the Internationals are ranked inside the top 60 and all play on the USPGA Tour. So they know their opponents well and won’t, I suggest, be intimidated at all in either the foursomes or the individual matches.

Sure, the USA will start off favourites. They have 6 of the world’s top 10 in their side, headed of course by Scottie Scheffler and all but one of their 12 are ranked inside the world’s top 30. That is a breathtaking line-up. Ryan Fox, by virtue of his second ranking in the International Team, becomes a key player in their side. Winning selection to this team was one of Ryan’s chief goals for this year and his rugged determination and now his considerable experience of playing and succeeding under pressure in the highest realms of the sport will serve him well. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t perform exceptionally well in Chicago, where the Presidents Cup is being played. Expect to see that hard-nosed Kiwi fighting spirit come through with Foxy, just like it used to time and time again from his father in his rugby-playing days.