The Presidents Cup: Everything You Need to Know

The International team will host the 2024 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal Golf Club, Sept. 26-29. Canadian Mike Weir will captain the International team on his home soil, while Jim Furyk aims to lead Team USA to its 10th consecutive victory. The Americans have won nine straight Presidents Cups entering 2024.

To qualify for the Presidents Cup, players must be eligible to compete in PGA Tour events. That means LIV golfers are not eligible for the Presidents Cup.

Each team is comprised of six automatic qualifiers, and six captains picks.

The International team uses the Official World Golf Ranings (OWGR) to determine its automatic qualifiers. The top six international players (Those not eligible for the European Ryder Cup team) in the OWGR after the 2024 BMW Championship, which concludes Aug. 25, 2024, make the team automatically, given they have played in at least 15 OWGR-rated tournaments since September 12, 2022.

The American team uses FedExCup points to determine its six automatica qualifiers. FedExCup Points transfer at a minimum of a 1:1 ratio, with extra weight, as much as 2:1 for majors and the Players Championship, given for more recent and more prestigious events.

The Presidents Cup is scheduled through 2030, and the United States and Internationals alternate hosting duties. Here is the future Presidents Cup schedule.

The inaugural Presidents Cup was played in 1994, making it a relatively new event compared to many of golf’s other premiere tournaments including the Open Championship (1860), U.S. Open (1895), and Ryder Cup (1927). Even the Solheim Cup, the women’s equivalent of the Ryder Cup which debuted in 1990, predates the Presidents Cup.

The first four Presidents Cups were played in even years, but when the Ryder Cup postponed its 34th matches from Sept. 28-30, 2001 to the following year after the 9/11 attacks, the Presidents Cup followed suit, moving to odd years through 2019. 

The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 flipped the script, bumping the Ryder Cup from 2020 to 2021, and the Presidents Cup from 2021 to 2022, and the Presidents Cup is back on an even-years schedule.

The United States has dominated the 14 Presidents Cups, leading the International team 12-1-1 overall.

There have been seven International and nine United States captains in the history of the Presidents Cup. Among the notable captains are Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. Peter Thomson is the only International captain to defeat the Americans, though Player was able to lead his team to the only tie. Nicklaus captained the most teams with four Presidents Cups under his belt, going 2-1-1.

In 2019, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els captained their respective teams. Els and the International squad led Woods’ American team through four sessions. Woods, who served as a playing-captain, then led the United States to its first comeback victory in Presidents Cup history.

Woods was only the second playing-captain to lead his team to victory. Hale Irwin first did it in 1994. Woods’ 3-0-0 record in 2019 helped secure the victory.

The Presidents Cup is played over four days and includes 30 total matches. A team must accumulate 15.5 points or more to win.

As of 2019, each player was only required to play a minimum of one match before the final-round single matches. Prior to that, players had to play in at least two matches before the final day.

Each match is worth one point. There are no playoffs, and each side earns a half-point if a match ends in a tie.

Players do not receive money for participating in the Presidents Cup. Instead, the PGA Tour pledges contributions to charities nominated by players, captains and assistant captains on the two teams. Since 1994, the PGA Tour has donated roughly 53.2 million dollars to the respected charities.

In addition to bragging rights for another two years, the winning team takes home a 28-pound trophy.