By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) – Five Canadians are jockeying for a spot to play next month’s Presidents Cup on home soil but International Team captain and compatriot Mike Weir said on Tuesday he doubts the entire group will make the cut.
Weir’s team will feature six automatic qualifiers and six captain’s selections and he will most likely need to separate his feelings for his countrymen when assembling the group that faces a powerhouse U.S. side Sept. 26-29 at Royal Montreal.
With less than two weeks before the automatic qualifiers are determined, no Canadians are currently among the top six. Corey Conners is at No. 7 followed by Nick Taylor (11), Adam Hadwin (12), Taylor Pendrith (13) and Mackenzie Hughes (15).
“Obviously I love all the guys, they are all great guys the five guys that are really in contention,” Weir, who in 2000 became the first Canadian to ever compete in a Presidents Cup, said during a virtual summit.
“There’s going to be some tough decisions to be made. Sure I’d love all of the guys to make the team, but unlikely that all five guys are going to make the team.”
There have never been more than two Canadians on a single International Team at the biennial competition that began in 1994 and pits a lineup of international players from outside Europe against a U.S. team.
Weir also said other analytics will be considered when assembling the team, including potential pairings, who fits best with the automatic qualifiers and which golfers match up well against the U.S. players.
If qualification ended today, the International Team’s automatic qualifiers would be Paris Olympics bronze medallist Hideki Matsuyama, Tom Kim, Im Sung-jae, Jason Day, Adam Scott and An Byeong-hun.
For now, Weir, who became the first Canadian to win a men’s major when he triumphed at the 2003 Masters, is bracing himself for some tough conversations in the coming weeks when he has to break the news to those who missed the cut.
“When I took this gig a couple of years ago all the Ryder Cup captains that I’ve played golf with, Padraig (Harrington), or Darren Clarke and Bernhard (Langer), they said that’s the toughest part,” said Weir.
“The great part is when you call the guys who made the team but the toughest part is there is some people that are going to be left very disappointed and that’s just part of the deal as being captain.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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