Scheffler heads US Prez Cup rankings, Lahiri on In’tl team fringe

By Rahul Banerji

Three months remain to ensure automatic qualification to the 2022 Presidents Cup with Scottie Scheffler leading the US team standings and Australia’s Cameron Smith heading the Internationals.

With late August as the cutoff, Anirban Lahiri is on the Internationals’ fringes in 12^th place. The top eight are automatic selections to the biennial event, the PGA Tour said.

The Presidents Cup will be contested in Charlotte, North Carolina, at Quail Hollow Club for the first time and Trevor Immelman’s Internationals will look so secure a first win on American soil against Davis Love III’s US team.

Smith, a five-time PGA Tour winner, leads the International standings with two of his five career titles coming in this season alone.

The 28-year-old started the year with a win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions before adding the Players Championship to his resume with a victory in his adopted hometown of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Smith will look to make his second appearance at the Presidents Cup after debuting in 2019 in his home country at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club, where he delivered a 1-1-1 record.

One spot down

Lahiri, in 11^th place last week, swapped places with Australia’s Marc Leishman this time round and will look to move back up at the Wells Fargo event starting later on Thursday.

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, an eight-time PGA Tour winner including this season’s Zozo Championship and Sony Open in Hawaii, and Korea’s Sungjae Im, a two-time Tour champion, look set to make their fifth and second appearances respectively for the Internationals.

They are ranked second and third on the standings. Im was one of the stars in the 2019 edition when he secured 3.5 points at Royal Melbourne in his debut appearance.

Matsuyama holds a 6-7-4 record in the Presidents Cup.

Another Asian golfer in the count for the automatic qualifying places besides Lahiri (no. 12) is Korea’s Si Woo Kim (No. 14).

Lahiri became India’s first golfer to feature in the Presidents Cup in 2015 and made the team again in 2017 while Kim, the 2017 Players Championship winner, appeared in 2017.

In 2019, a record five Asian golfers – Matsuyama, Im, Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan, China’s Haotong Li and Korea’s Byeong Hun An – were on the International roster.

Hot form

World no. 1 Scheffler leads the standings for the US team with 18 events remaining before the qualification window closes following the 2022 BMW Championship.

This season, the 25-year-old earned his first four PGA Tour titles in the span of six starts, winning the WM Phoenix Open, Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and the Masters.  

In what would be his Presidents Cup debut, Scheffler brings plenty of team match play experience as a member of the 2017 US Walker Cup team and the winning 2021 US Ryder Cup Team.

The top 10 for the US remained unchanged following the Mexico Open at Vidanta, with Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas rounding out the top five.

Tony Finau, who made his debut at the 2019 Presidents Cup, moved from no. 24 up to 17 with a T2 finish in Mexico after closing in 63 to wind up one shot shy of winner Jon Rahm.

The only change inside the top 10 in the International Team standings was Canada’s Corey Conners moving up to no. 6, with Mexico’s Abraham Ancer dropping down to no. 7.

For the Internationals, four captain’s selections will be named on August 29.

Also read: Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup postponed by a year each