Capelle On Golf

As the post majors season rolls on the questions is, are you up for the next Cup?

Does the thought of watching a group of Americans whooping it up at Harding Park on Sunday while the foreign mercenaries board their jets back home excite you?

Personally, I’m not so thrilled. But hey, watching great players on a beautiful course with some breathtaking views of San Francisco is not all bad. Besides, Tiger and Companies’ great iron shots beat cheap shots on NFL Sundays.

I opened with questions, and the more I think about the Presidents Cup, the more questions overflow its rim. For starters, how about the premise? The U.S. against the World minus Europe. I can see the U.S. squad with team spirit. We get to take on the world and show how great we are.

But what about the Internationals? Why should they band against us? Most of them live or maintain homes in American. Seven of the 12 have won 12 majors on American soil, so some of their fondest memories have come in the U.S. And they all, except for Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa, have made their fortunes playing in America.

The Internationals are not like other sports teams that have never been to America and have been fed propaganda about the U.S. So why should they be motivated to beat us? Do their home countries (all eight of them) even care? So, what binds them together?

As for the competition, so far it has been one sided with the U.S. holding a 5-1-1 lead, with a commanding 3-0 advantage on home soil. For this edition, Ladbrokes has made the U.S. a 1/3 favorite while the Internationals are listed at 5/2. Indeed, the Internationals only win came 11 years ago in Australia when the pampered U.S. team must have drank too many of those huge beers or failed to adapt to the time change.

The line on the cup seems about right when you look at the World Golf Rankings of the two teams.
U.S.: 1 – 2 – 3 – 6 – 9 – 13 – 14 – 17 – 18 – 22 – 25 – 38
Inter.: 10 – 15 – 16 – 21 – 23 – 28 – 30 – 31 – 32 – 37 – 43 - 65

So, for the immediate future, the balance of power lies with the Americans. But don’t think for a moment it will always be this way. The U.S. used to clobber Great Britain in the Ryder Cup. Then the mainland Europeans were added and suddenly we became the underdog – in the last 12 Ryder Cups the Europeans hold a commanding 7-4-1 lead, proving than numbers count.

At some point that huge global population the U.S. team is up against is going to turn against us. There are 6 billion of them, and 305 million of us. Golf will continue its growth worldwide, and at some point those huge numbers of people are going to produce superstar golfers that will overwhelm the U.S. team.

A look at women’s golf should prove this point. In 1998 South Korea’s Si Ri Pak won two majors. Since then, the Internationals (not counting Europe) have won 21 women’s majors while the U.S. women have captured 14. If they held a First Ladies Cup today, the average World Golf Ranking for the 12 best Internationals would be 17 places better than the American team, making them a huge favorite.

Point: when some countries adopt a sport and use their commitment and special training methods, they are churn out the champions. We know about the South Korean women in golf and those who watched the Olympics in 2008 no doubt remember how the Chinese gymnasts were so dominant. Those who follow billiards know that the men players of the Philippines are to pool what the South Korean women are to golf.

So go ahead and enjoy the views of the Golden Gate and the U.S. teams victory in this 4-day exhibition. But as you do, pay special notice to Friday’s announcement when golf will probably be voted into the 2016 Olympics. Should that happen, golf could explode in countries where it’s already a religion, and several new ones as well. It took Jack Nicklaus 10 years from the date he first picked up a club until he was good enough to finish second in the U.S. Open.

In 10 more years they’ll be playing the 2019 Presidents Cup and Olympic aspirants will have has a decade to hone their skills. By then, if not shortly thereafter, the competitive balance of golf will likely have changed forever, and the Presidents Cup will be fast becoming obsolete.