The men who did want to play the Presidents Cup will confront the men who didn’t on home soil this year, with Adam Scott and Cameron Davis set to return for the Australian Open and PGA.
Both former Open winners, the duo are flying the flag for the International team at this month’s Presidents Cup showdown with the US after defections to LIV Golf from Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman, who have confirmed their homecomings this summer, which made them immediately ineligible.
Scott all but confirmed his return home to play while at the BMW PGA Championship in England where tensions are running high, with 17 LIV golfers, some welcome, some not, teeing it up.
“I definitely plan to be going home to Oz and playing. I’ll be home for sure,” Scott said in an interview at Wentworth, during which he declared a move to LIV was not in his immediate plans.
He also said in the interview he didn’t have “ill-feeling” towards Smith having taken up an “incredible opportunity” that included a reported $140m signing bonus as players including Rory McIlroy continued to rail against LIV players taking part at the event in England this week.
Scott, 42, will be playing his 10th Presidents Cup in a team that doesn’t quite resemble the one team captain Trevor Immelman had in mind before Smith and Leishman, as well as Abraham Ancer and Joaquin Niemann, who played in the last event in 2019 at Royal Melbourne, moved to LIV.
But Scott has remained a strong voice within the new-look outfit, as revealed by Davis who said his fellow Aussie shared some significant advice at a team dinner this week.
“Once I got an announced, it was just congratulations from everyone. Adam had a few words to say to everyone there at the dinner and a few were directed more in my direction,” Davis said.
“You know, draw on some past experiences that you had. Winning a playoff to win a tournament out here is an environment and a situation that you can think back to when you’re out there and fighting the heat out there in that environment coming up in a couple of weeks.
“Definitely a lot of wisdom from him having done this a million times already, going into his 10th. It’s cool to have another familiar accent out there to bounce off. It’s going to be cool.”
The cream of the Australian crop is almost all locked in for the two events in Australia, with officials confident reigning US Open champ Minjee Lee will join her brother, Min Woo, at the Australian Open, with the men’s and women’s events being played on the same course at the same time in the first week of December.
She’s yet to lock in an appearance but it’s looming, with fellow major winner Hannah Green already secured.
Rising star Steph Kyriacou is also a confirmed starter for the women’s event, with US PGA Tour winner Lucas Herbert, who was a controversial omission from the Presidents Cup team, also playing.
