By Rahul Banerji
International captain Ernie Els unveiled a new team logo for the 2019 Presidents Cup against the United States next December that has potential members including Anirban Lahiri over the moon.
The logo was launched at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club on the sidelines of the ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf to give team members a more unified focus.
The new design of the logo allows members from different countries to have their respective national flags displayed.
Els looked to friends from the military for inspiration for the logo can stand on its own or include individual flags from home countries.
‘Special guys’
“It’s a special group of guys from all over the world that make up the Presidents Cup International Team,” said Els on the occasion.
“Being from across the globe, we don’t all play for the same flag. This group needed something to identify with. To lift the spirit of the team, we felt like we needed a logo for ourselves.”
Anirban Lahiri, who has featured in the last two Presidents Cup, is fired up to make the International team again under the captaincy of Els.
“For me, to have my country represented as a part of something that’s bigger than all the countries put together, it’s very special,” he said at the launch.
“You do represent your country even though you’re an International first that week, and I think it’s also going to bring the people of these countries together.
Motivating factor
“It’s going to motivate me even more, if that’s even possible come the next Presidents Cup. I think the people in India are going to see the Indian flag and gravitate towards it.
“People from Mexico and Australia and Canada, even though they know they’re Internationals, when they see the flag, you know, there’s a different kind of passion that you attach to it and I think that’s going to be added to what’s already there,” Lahiri added,
Joining Els at the announcement were Lahiri, Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Australians Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith, Haotong Li and Ashun Wu of China, Korea’s Si Woo Kim,Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas and Mexico’s Abraham Ancer.
“To have this logo to bond us together and still represent our countries and our flags, is something we can all be a part of and all get behind,” Els added.
“Players here tonight represent the future of this team with traditional countries like Australia and Korea alongside some countries where golf is growing like Mexico, Thailand, India and China.”
Repeat venue
This is the third time in the the biennial event’s 25-year history that u will be held on the Sandbelt course in Melbourne after 1998 and 2011.
The Internationals scored their only win in the event back in 1998 with Peter Thomson’s team defeating the Jack Nicklaus-led USA by a 20.5-11.5 margin.
In 2011, Fred Couples led the USA to a 19-15 win over Greg Norman’s Internationals.
The Presidents Cup sees the top 12 players from the United States taking on the top 12 from nations across the globe, excluding Europe.
Charity powerhouse
The Presidents Cup offers no purse or prize money. There is no payment for players, but each competitor gets to allocate an equal portion of the funds generated to charities of his choice.
Since the event’s inception, more than $49.1 million has been raised for charity from proceeds, as well as contributions made on behalf of the Presidents Cup, including a record donation of $10.7 million from the 2017 event alone.
Cit and Rolex are the exclusive global partners of the Presidents Cup.
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