Presidents Cup 2013: U.S., International Team player previews

This is just the second American team competition appearance for Brandt Snedeker, but if he continues his form, it’s hard to envision a team over the next decade without him. That’s because he’s possibly the most consistent American golfer in the world, stacking up cash and wins over the past two years to jump ahead of all his contemporaries in that second tier behind Phil and Tiger.

Snedeker and Matt Kuchar have been the two most automatic players on Tour, but can the Vandy product translate that to match play this week. His debut at the Ryder Cup last year occurred right after he’d won the TOUR Championship and FedExCup to bank a career $10 million payday. But the results were mixed, with nerves showing at times for one of the best putters in the game.

Charl Schwartzel enters the 2013 Presidents Cup perhaps playing better than any International team member not named Adam Scott. And yet, it’s Schwartzel who is probably facing the biggest challenge and uphill battle this week.

That’s because the 2011 Masters champ will likely be paired with close childhood friend and fellow South African Louis Oosthuizen for most of the two-man games. In another year and another place, that would be an ideal and formidable pairing capable of beating any American duo. But unfortunately for Schwartzel, he’ll probably have to carry Oosthuizen all week. It’s Oosty’s first real competition since early July, as the diminutive South African has been nursing injuries all over his body -- mostly in his back -- that have prohibited him from really swinging a golf club in more than two months. It’s a dicey circumstance, and it’s hard to predict what Schwartzel can count on from his longtime playing partner.

Webb Simpson has not won on the PGA Tour since his career-defining U.S. Open victory last June, but after another solid season, he was a no-brainer Presidents Cup captain’s choice for Fred Couples. Simpson’s form rarely fluctuates, unlike, say, a Bubba Watson. He’s usually in the top 25 and almost never misses a cut (only 4 in 25 events this year.)

It did not look like Simpson would be at the mercy of Couples until Zach Johnson bombed in a putt right in front of him as the two played the final hole of the Deutsche Bank Championship together last month. The birdie putt was a one-stroke difference that slid Johnson into the 10th automatic qualifying spot and knocked out Simpson. But just a day later, Couples said he couldn’t leave Simpson off the team just because of that last-second shuffle, and even Johnson lobbied for Simpson’s inclusion.

Adam Scott’s dramatic playoff victory over Angel Cabrera at the Masters in April secured his position as the leader of the dark-horse International team in this week’s Presidents Cup matches at Muirfield Village.

The first Australian to win at Augusta, Scott added a triumph at The Barclays to his Player of the Year-contending 2013 season. Since capturing his first major and enjoying the most successful campaign of his tour career, Scott has comfortably assumed the role of quasi-pilot of golf’s top 12 non-Europeans hoping to pull a Ryder Cup-like upset and wrest the cup from the U.S. for only the second time in the event’s 19-year history.

In what could be characterized as “too much information,” Matt Kuchar, when asked what made his Sea Island neighbor and USA teammate a day late, said Zach Johnson was having a bout of “explosive diarrhea.” Those were apparently Johnson’s own words, but regardless of the particulars, one of America’s most consistent players is not feeling his best during Presidents Cup week.

Johnson did get in to Columbus on Tuesday but missed Monday night meetings, team pictures and the practice round. Fellow Georgian and assistant captain Davis Love III took Johnson’s place in the practice round foursome with Jason Dufner, Tiger Woods and Kuchar. By Tuesday afternoon, however, Johnson was on the grounds and on the range getting in some light work. The early week concerns seem a bit allayed, and it’s obviously a story that got a lot of attention with hours of preview coverage scheduled and not a ton of news items to talk about.

Jason Day may be playing for the International side, but this week’s Presidents Cup is a home game for the Aussie. Day resides in the Columbus area with his wife, an Ohio native, and is even a member at Muirfield Village. He’s said he’ll be keeping an eye on fellow members to see if they’re rooting for him or their country throughout the weekend. It’s certainly an advantage to have that familiarity with the Jack Nicklaus layout, but because it’s a regular annual PGA Tour stop, almost every International player has gotten their reps on the course.

Day and fellow Aussie Adam Scott are the International team’s top two players, both consistently showing up and contending at the game’s biggest events. Scott finally broke through for his first major at Augusta this year, and Day was once again nails at all the biggest championships. He seems to always be in the mix on Sunday, and it’s likely he’ll get his first soon. It’s unlikely, however, that Day and Scott are paired together, with captain Nick Price probably splitting them up to mentor or carry two of the rookies and untested guys.

Hunter Mahan is only 31 years old, but he’s a Presidents Cup veteran by any measurement. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Mahan has been lighting it up on the PGA Tour for more than six years now, regularly qualifying or getting chosen for a spot on both the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams. This will be his fourth straight Presidents Cup appearance, and after he just missed out on automatic qualifying for the Ryder Cup last year, Tom Watson cited Mahan as the main reason for culling down captain’s picks and adding more qualifying spots for 2014. Watson was almost incredulous that Mahan was not a part of the team -- he’s become that much of a mainstay and fixture in these competitions.

But Mahan was not sharp through the second half of the 2012 season, and there were more deserving captain’s choices for Davis Love III last fall. Mahan, however, left nothing to chance this season and was back in form, contending on almost a weekly basis and playing in the final Sunday pairing at both the U.S. Open and British Open. He did not have a win this year, but he did finish in the top 25 a total of 16 times, and missed the cut in just three of 25 events.

Tiger Woods sheds his Ryder Cup futility when he puts on the red, white, and blue for the off-year biennial battles with the Internationals in the Presidents Cup.

The world No. 1, who went a woeful 0-3-1 in the U.S.’ colossal collapse last year at Medinah and sports a lackluster 13-17-3 record in seven Ryder Cup appearances, owns a 20-14-1 mark when he goes up against gamers from the parts of the world that do not include Europe. Certainly, the intensity level of the 19-year-old Presidents Cup comes nowhere close to that of the far more traditional contests between the Americans and Euros, but, until the last few years, no one ever doubted Woods’ steely determination or mental makeup.

There are six major champions on the USA team at the 2013 Presidents Cup, and the latest, Jason Dufner, may be the most reliable ball striker of the bunch. It’s a huge advantage in these team competitions, where the pressure is on to keep yourself in the yard and give your partner a chance.

Dufner is back again after making his team competition debut last fall at the Ryder Cup at Medinah, a recent PGA Championship added to a list of accomplishments that’s rapidly expanded over the past two seasons. There aren’t too many guys who don’t want to play with Dufner, as he’s one of the easygoing, avuncular members on a team of mixed personalities. It sounds like the Duf, however, will be paired with his partner from the Ryder Cup, fellow ball-striking ace Zach Johnson. The two have a lower profile than some of the other members on the team, but given their form and consistency, it’s almost an unbeatable pair.

Jordan Spieth, fresh from winning the 2013 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year award, may have to fight potential Presidents Cup playing partners off with Adam Scott’s broomstick.

The 20-year-old new kid on the block, who began the year without a Tour card and ended it by winning the votes of his peers for RoY and becoming the youngest American to make it into the biennial matches against the Internationals, has a slew of suitors who want to tee it up with him this week at Muirfield Village.

Richard Sterne is perhaps the most obscure player of the 24 in competition this week, even to dedicated golf fans who follow the game. The South African plays almost exclusively on the Euro Tour, occasionally popping up in the States for WGC events or a major.

Sterne had also been off the golf map for four years until he got hot early this season, playing a two-to-three week stretch as maybe the best golfer in the world given his scores back in the first quarter of the season. After finishing solo second at the Dubai Desert Classic in February, Sterne blew out the Euro Tour field on home soil to capture the Joburg Open. No one was really close, and he finished 27-under to get his first victory since 2008.

Angel Cabrera is another one of those Presidents Cup veterans, a mainstay on the International team since 2005. El Pato is the only representative from South America and Spanish-speaking player this year, the club dominated by the usual crop of Aussies and South Africans. But while he does not share the same background and can be mercurial at times, he’s one of the International leaders and commands the respect of the less seasoned and younger players -- Adam Scott said as much after he edged him out for the playoff win at Augusta this year. Scott praised the influence of Cabrera and the encouragement at past Presidents Cups as one of the reasons why the talented Aussie found his game again to contend at majors.

This was a bit of a rejuvenation year for Cabrera, who tends to only show up at the majors when it matters most but had not been much of a factor -- anywhere -- in a couple years. More than any other player in the world, he has the ability to flame out one week and then instantly turn it around to beat out the best fields in the world the next. El Pato was the Sunday favorite at The Masters until Adam Scott started rolling things in from everywhere, and then it looked like he would be in it down the stretch at The Open but settled for a T11. He completely blew up at the PGA and withdrew, citing an injury, and then middled his way through the first three legs of the FedExCup.

The man with the sweetest, most automatic golf swing in the world is ironically the biggest question mark among all 24 competitors in the Presidents Cup. Louis Oosthuizen spent the last two and a half months on the shelf, nursing neck and back injuries while skipping the year’s last two majors. Oosthuizen insisted he would be back for the Presidents Cup, but he cut it close, getting in just one week of tournament reps before coming to Columbus. Oosthuizen played at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last week, getting through it without injury incident but missing the cut.

Oosthuizen is therefore the X-factor this week. When he’s in form, he has the best swing in the world and is almost impossible to beat. But it’s unlikely we’ll see anything approaching that kind of play from the well-rested Oosthuizen. He started this year as the trendy pick to win the Masters, or another major, but flamed out in the early months of the season with inconsistent play and then withdrew because of the injuries at both the U.S. Open and British Open. The PGA was never even attempted. He was last seen missing the cut at the John Deere in early July, so captain Nick Price has to be on edge when trying to calculate what he can get from him. The worst case scenario is that injuries force him to back out and leave Price down a man.

Matt Kuchar is yet another example of American depth in the Presidents Cup competition. Kuchar would be a top two player for the International side, but for the USA, he’s one of six or seven players inside or hovering right at the top 10 in the world rankings. Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker established themselves this summer as the two go-to Americans not named Tiger or Phil, and they’ll be counted on this week in the team setting.

For Kuchar, that reputation was burnished in two events that are the perfect prep for this week -- the WGC Match Play win in February, and the Memorial victory at Muirfield Village, Jack Nicklaus’ place that is hosting everyone again for the Presidents Cup. It’s hard to make a better case than a win on the host course and a win under the same match play format when it comes to arguing your bona fides as one of the best American options this week.