Presidents Cup: Format explained

Every two years a 12-man team from the USA takes on an Internationals squad of non-European players over a series of matches for the Presidents Cup.

Play takes place over four days, and the 2024 event will start on Thursday, September 26 at the Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada, where the home team will be captained by 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir, while America will be led by Jim Furyk.

The USA defends the title it won at Quail Hollow, Charlotte, North Carolina two years ago, when it triumphed 17.5-12.5 under Davis Love III against Trevor Immelman’s Internationals.

Here are the details of how the competition works, the scoring system and how matchups are selected for what should be a great four days of golf competition.

Presidents Cup format

While golf is usually an individual sport in which players have only their own ability to reply upon if they are to be successful, the Presidents Cup is played over a match-play format, where players or groups will play against their opponents to post the best score on individual holes.

So it can be that matches do not have to go the full 18 holes before they are decided as if a pairing or a player is, say, three shots ahead with just two holes remaining, the match will have been judged to have finished in a 3&2 win and it will end there and then.

Unlike the Ryder Cup, which takes place over three days when the USA plays the best players from Europe, the Presidents Cup has an extra day of competition with matches taking place on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

However, Saturday is the only day when matches take place in both the morning and the afternoon.

On Thursday there will be five foursome matches, where each team captain will select five teams of two players from their 12 available to face off, but the pairings will play only one ball between them, taking alternative shots.

The pair who score the lowest total on each hole will win the hole and the match will progress until the result is assured.

Should the pairs not be separated after 18 holes, then the match will be halved with each team gaining half a point.

On Friday there will be five fourball matches, with the pairings selected in exactly the same way and the holes scored in the same manner.

However, the difference will be that players play their own individual ball and the best score from the pairing will be the one that counts.

On Saturday there will be four fourballs in the morning and four foursomes in the afternoon, while Sunday will see all 12 members of each side involved in singles matches to conclude the contest.

Presidents Cup scoring

The packed program means there are a total of 30 points available over the four days, so 15.5 will be required to claim the trophy.

One point is available from each match, but there will be no playoffs if any match ends level after 18 holes. If that happens, half a point will be added to their team’s total.

If the match ends 15-15, the two teams will share the trophy, which is a different scenario to what happens in the Ryder Cup, where the trophy is kept by the holders should the scores end level.

This has happened only once, in 2003, when originally the match was set to be decided in sudden death, but after darkness fell with the teams not separated by three extra holes, captains Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player decided the trophy should be shared.

How are the Presidents Cup matchups decided?

Neither captain is able to dictate who will play against who. They can only decide on the order their players will go into action.

For each of the five stages (two foursomes, two fourballs, singles), each captain will submit a list of which players they want to play in which slot and much of the time they will look to pair players whose golf games and personalities are a good match.

However, each captain does not know what the other is doing and in the singles a captain must decide whether to go out with strong players early or late, or sprinkle them within the line-up, while trying to guess what his opposing captain will be doing.

So the matchups are completely random and that can add to the excitement as the pairings are selected.