2015 Presidents Cup rosters: Phil Mickelson, Bill Haas are controversial USA captain’s picks

It does not come close to matching the hype and competitiveness of the Ryder Cup, but the Presidents Cup is still a nice little match play competition to follow after the most meaningful stretches of the golf season have passed. Unlike the Ryder Cup, which has taken up almost full-time residence in Europe over the last 20 years, the United States has owned this competition against a roster of 12 non-European International stars.

The International team is captained by Nick Price for the second straight Presidents Cup. Price went first on Tuesday afternoon and announced that he was adding Australian Steven Bowditch and Sangmoon Bae to his roster. Bowditch was the last man out on points qualification, which automatically places the first 10 players on the roster. Danny Lee, who is Korean born, edged Bowditch by a shot to clinch the 10th and final spot by the narrowest margin when the qualifying closed on Monday at the Deutsche Bank Championship. A day later, however, Price gave Bowditch the nod anyways and he’ll make his first ever start in the team competition. Bowditch has two PGA Tour wins in the last two years and has been in the best form of an inconsistent career over these past summer months.

Price said the final spot came down to Bae and Aussie Matt Jones. The captain stated it was important to get a local favorite on the team, one that the Korean fans and press can get behind and put some juice into the event and his team. Bae has won on this Jack Nicklaus course before in Incheon and is familiar with the setup.

The obvious issue with Bae is his impending military commitment. This has hung over him all season. He’s required to perform two years of military service back home in Korea, a commitment he contested legally but lost this summer. He was allowed to play out his PGA Tour season, but the service was supposed to start upon its conclusion. There was no firm date on when he was due to report, but Bae’s season will end, at the latest, at the TOUR Championship at the end of September. Presumably an arrangement will be worked out so the local favorite can tee it up for the International team in October, but it’s likely that Jones will step in as the alternate if the Korean government precludes Bae from playing when he gets back home.

American captain Jay Haas followed Price during the made-for-TV announcement show and he named Bill Haas and Phil Mickelson as his two captain’s picks. Haas’ team is loaded and they will be heavy favorites again in a competition they have dominated. By any measure -- wins, world rankings, eye test -- the U.S. team is miles deeper and superior to the International side.

Haas had a tougher decision to make with his final two roster spots, especially because the last guy out of the points qualification was his son, Bill. It was a no-win situation -- he either had to bounce his son off the roster or take heat for nepotism. The elder Haas said he was going to pick the 11th-place guy in the points standings no matter what. But that won’t hold water for the people demanding up-and-comers like Brooks Koepka, Robert Streb, and Billy Horschel needed to be on these rosters as the team turns over going into a new generation.

Haas’ first pick before his son was Phil Mickelson, a mainstay on the American side on these events but definitely a controversial choice. There were plenty of options out there and Mickelson has a ton of experience, but he was 30th in the points standings. His match play record is underwhelming and he’s not had a great year -- this was a great opportunity for a new roster without Tiger or Phil but Haas decided to go with the veteran over Koepka and Horschel. This will be Phil’s 21st consecutive appearance on the USA roster in these international team competitions.

Here are the full rosters for next month’s Presidents Cup in Korea:

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