The 2022 Presidents Cup will be more about who isn’t there than who is.
A number of high-profile players have bolted for the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which means a handful of players from both the U.S. and International teams will be missing from the Presidents Cup beginning Thursday in Charlotte, N.C. The PGA Tour runs the event, which will be at Quail Hollow Club, thus the players who have bolted for the rival league remain suspended.
Notably, World No. 2 and reigning British Open and Players Championship winner Cameron Smith will be absent, as will be Joaquin Niemann. Both had automatically qualified for the International team. Abraham Ancer likely would have, too, or at least might have been a captain’s pick, before he left for LIV. Others, including Marc Leishman, Louis Oosthuizen, Anirban Lahiri, Brandan Grace and Charl Schwartzel, would have also been possibilities to be picked.
On the U.S. side, Patrick Reed, Taylor Gooch, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka also would have been in the running to be captain’s picks in the biennial event.
Does that mean there are a few players who wouldn’t normally be teeing it up for the Americans? Not in the eyes of team member Billy Horschel.
Billy Horschel would have made the Presidents Cup team, regardless of the status of LIV golfers.Getty Imags“I know there’s been a lot of chatter about it on both sides, at least the players who went to the LIV Tour,” Horschel said during a press conference Tuesday. “Then as Max [Homa] sort of indicated Sunday after he won [the Fortinet Championship], there was a lot of people on social media that like to chime in.
“What he’s heard, I’ve heard as well, I only made the team because the LIV guys left the Tour. I mean, those are just people that don’t know what the F they’re talking about. If they would have seen the points list when they left the Tour, Max and I were clearly in the top 12. So it doesn’t bother us one bit.”
Horschel, who will be playing in his first Presidents Cup, very likely would have been on the team regardless.
In 22 starts this year, the 35-year-old won the Memorial, finished tied for second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and had two other top-10 finishes. Likewise, Homa won the Wells Fargo Championship, was fifth at the Memorial and 10th at the Genesis Invitational, with a slew of other top-20 finishes to go with it.
Horschel was thrilled at making his first team repping the U.S.
“Not taking it for granted, but at the same time being very happy and very pleased to be here and soaking all of the experience in,” he said. “because you just never know what happens in the game of golf.”
