2015 Presidents Cup schedule: USA team takes on International stars in prime time

The Presidents Cup is one of the most unique events in golf. The best players in the world turn up for the rare opportunity to play as a team and under match-play format. The Ryder Cup is more competitive, has more history, and because of that, is much more appealing at the moment. The Presidents Cup cannot match it, but I’ll still tune in to watch 24 of the world’s best play in a totally different format.

Unlike the Ryder Cup, this event is split across four days and puts more match points on the table. Nick Price, however, managed to convince the PGA Tour to eliminate four matches for this year’s Cup. The matches and points went from 34 down to 30 -- Price wanted to get it all the way to 28, which is the same number at the Ryder Cup. Eliminating some of those matches in the early sessions is an advantage for the Internationals, who are not as deep and can hide some of their weaker players on the bench now.

Here’s the schedule and the different formats for each day for the week in Korea:

The Presidents Cup could become tedious compared to the Ryder Cup not just for the lack of competitiveness, but because of some interminable early sessions. Price and the Internationals got a big boost before the first ball was hit by knocking the first two sessions down from a full six-match session to just five matches. That will let Price bury two of his weaker or off-form players.

The first session will be the foursomes format. This is the alternate shot game, one that the US side has struggled with in the Ryder Cup but dominated in the Presidents Cup. It’s the most dramatic departure from the typical week-to-week golf these stars play. Your partner’s ball may not be the same brand and model as yours. You may go long breaks without making a swing. You will have to get out of a terrible spot that you didn’t create. It’s the hardest to adjust to but the US side plays it every year in this event or the Ryder Cup, so many of the Americans have more experience with it. The Internationals do not and have struggled staying competitive in this format. The foursomes session can be the difference and what ignites the American trouncing.

The first foursomes session will tee off at 10:05 p.m. ET on Wednesday night back in the eastern United States. That’s just after 11 a.m. local in Incheon. Golf Channel will start their coverage right at 10 p.m. back in the States, with the session expected to last until about 3 a.m. ET. It could end earlier if the fourth and fifth matches do not go deep into the back nine. This is the quickest sessions with just two balls in play for every four players.

Another format change win for the International side was knocking the second day’s session down from the full six matches to just five again. So the captains will have to sit down two more players on Friday afternoon.

While the Ryder Cup does a double session on Friday, the Presidents Cup hosts single sessions and splits things up over Thursday and Friday for more room at the start of the week. Friday’s session this year will be four-ball format. Each player plays their own ball and the best score smashes up against the best of your two opponents -- it’s the basic best ball format you might be used to. The Internationals have fared better in this format over the years, but they fell behind a full point in 2013 when the Cup opened with four-ball on Thursday in Ohio.

The four-ball session tees off earlier than day one, with the first match going at 8:35 p.m. ET on Thursday night (9:35 a.m. local on Friday in Korea). Each match is 15 minutes apart but it should run longer than the first session because, obviously, there are four balls in play as opposed to the alternate shot. Golf Channel is expecting another 3 a.m. ET finish Friday morning back in the States.

This is the only double session day at the Presidents Cup and it will be a long one. It starts at 6 p.m. on Friday night (7 a.m. local in Korea) with four alternate-shot foursomes matches. The second session is expected to start at 10:35 p.m. ET Friday (11:35 a.m. Saturday in Korea) and that will include four more four-ball matches. This was another area Price succeed in trimming, as each Saturday session used to have five matches and not four. There are eight points up for grabs on this moving day.

There’s nowhere to hide in the final session, as all 12 team members go out for the traditional Sunday singles session. We’ve seen some dramatic swings on these final days with 12 of the event’s 30 points out there in one session. But we’ve not seen them so much in the Presidents Cup, where the Internationals are often in too big a hole and at too big a talent disadvantage to make those miracle runs.

The first singles tee time is set for 9:35 p.m. ET Saturday night in the States (10:35 a.m. in Korea) and they will go out in 12-minute intervals thereafter. The broadcast window runs until 3:30 a.m. ET Sunday, but it could end an hour or more before that based on when the winning point is clinched.

Here’s the full schedule for the week:

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