The President’s Cup should be revamped or removed
Join the Club by John Patrick
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The LPGA wrapped up the Solheim Cup a couple of weeks ago, and Team USA won the competition and the Cup back from the Europeans.
The Solheim, a joint venture between the LPGA and the Ladies European Tour, is the LPGA’s version of the Ryder Cup and for me, a worthwhile event.
The Ryder Cup, by comparison, is a joint venture between the PGA of America and three organizations in Europe. The PGA owns half, the European Tour owns 30%. The PGA of Great Britain and Ireland owns 10%, and the Confederation of Professional Golf owns the other 10%.
The Ryder Cup is a big moneymaker. Recent numbers regarding revenue from the Ryder Cup show that, in 2021, the PGA of America saw $192 million in revenue, with $143 million coming from tournament revenue. In non-Ryder Cup years, the PGA of America saw $94 million in revenue and $68 million in tournament revenue.
Those kinds of numbers get the attention of the PGA Tour. Which brings us to this week’s event, the Presidents Cup. If you ask me, it’s nothing more than a money grab by the PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour just couldn’t take standing by watching the PGA of America bring in numbers like that so, 30 years ago, the Tour got in the business of biennial team events. Unlike the Ryder and Solheim Cups, which pit the USA against teams from Europe, the Presidents Cup pits the PGA Tour against a nebulous team of international players. To date, there have been 15 Presidents Cups. Team USA has won 13 of them. The international team won in 1998 in Australia, and then famously tied in the dark in 2003 in South Africa with Tiger and Ernie Els dueling to the finish. As far as the revenue is concerned, we don’t really know what the PGA Tour makes from the event, because it’s the PGA Tour. But rest assured, if they weren’t making money from it, it would disappear from the landscape.
Unlike the Ryder and Solheim Cups, the Presidents Cup is a lopsided event. It needs to be more competitive. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to have the international team win this week in Montreal. The Ryder Cup was struggling
until the late ‘80s when Seve, Tony Jacklin and the other members of the European team went to Muirfield Village, Jack’s House, and beat a Jack Nicklaus-led team. From that moment, it was on! The Presidents Cup needs a moment like that.
Instead, this week, we’ll hear about the Americans playing for team and Country. Personally, I think that the whole thing about playing for the flag has taken a hit since golf returned to the Olympics. The international team will be playing for… I don’t know. What I do know is that I hope that team can muster up a way of making the event competitive and watchable, maybe even winnable.
If not, I think it’s time to rethink the Presidents Cup.
