An ideal Presidents Cup would look like this…

The Presidents Cup is at a crossroads. There are ways to turn, but it isn’t moving.

Captains Brandt Snedeker and Geoff Ogilvy would’ve received heat for whichever picks they chose for the event at Medinah, but their actions have left me existentially considering the point of this tournament.

Akshay Bhatia missed out, as he did in Royal Montreal two years ago, despite winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2026. While his form has dipped, with five missed cuts since his victory in March, he has shown he has the ability to perform under pressure and on the biggest stages. Medinah seemed the perfect trial, potentially for an appearance at next year’s Ryder Cup.

Ryan Gerard must be bitterly disappointed not to make Snedeker’s team. The 27-year-old secured a first PGA Tour win in 2025, his first season with a card, and narrowly missed out on adding to his resume in 2026. He came up against the Scottie Scheffler juggernaut at East Lake, after also losing a playoff to J.T Poston at the Memorial.

Despite an end-of-season boost to his form, the Patrick Cantlay selection comes as a surprise. Yes, his experience and prominence in match play events make him a valuable asset, with this his seventh Team USA appearance. But given the USA’s dominance in the event, I’m surprised Snedeker didn’t trial some more new faces, as he did with Jackson Koivun.

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Presidents Cup mixed event would be epic

To be fair to Ogilvy, the Canadian who won the Masters in 2003, he shouldn’t face as much criticism as Snedeker. The selections mostly chose themselves, with four International members inside the top-15 of the Tour Champiosnhip. You could’ve made a case for the experience of Jason Day, who like Christiaan Bezuidenhout, has endured a diificult season but has appeared in five Presidents Cups.

This column won’t descend into a criticism of the Captain’s selections. You can’t please everyone. I no doubt churned out something similar before last year’s and probably next year’s Ryder Cup. But what these picks show to me, now more than ever, is that change is needed. I don’t understand each team’s motivation.

Do the USA use this event as practice for the Ryder Cup? If so, why leave out Gerard who could use the experience ahead of Adare Manor next year? Do the Internationals want experience to win a trophy they’ve won once in the event’s existence? I assume the answer is yes, so why is Jason Day not in consideration for his sixth appearance?

I am looking forward to the Presidents Cup, largely as a huge fan of team match play events, and as a European fan, I’ll be rooting for the Internationals. But like last week’s Tour Championship, the clamour for change to this event’s format is real.

There have long been calls to change to a mixed event. Realistically with my most cynical hat on, will this happen? No. But there isn’t one reason why it shouldn’t. The landscape of golf has changed dramatically in the last three years after the introduction of LIV Golf, so why can this event not change?

In an ideal Presidents Cup, there would be six men’s players and six women’s players on each team. There would be no restrictions applied to players from the LIV Golf League which is currently hindering the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann and Cameron Smith from competing.

Sure, re-placing my cynical hat on my head, this won’t happen. But it should and if you are a golf fan, how couldn’t you tune in to a four-day match play event (make it a three-day event while we’re here) with two teams made of the best American and International men’s and women’s players?

This would be an infinitely clear upgrade on a tournament which has lost its way.

So I’ve compiled two new Presidents Cup teams, without inhibitions. I’ve left out a few names just like Snedeker and Ogilvy have done, and based it mostly on the world rankings and who people want to see play golf, but this is what an ideal Presidents Cup match would look like to me:

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What do you make of the Presidents Cup mixed event idea? Could the Presidents Cup mixed event idea get off the ground? Tell us on X!