There are different kinds of pressure on this year’s Presidents Cup captains, whether they let on about it or not.
Mike Weir is guiding the International squad at Royal Montreal, with three Canadians on the team. Jim Furyk’s job is to extend the United States’ win streak to 10 straight.
On Tuesday, two days before the competition begins, Weir and Furyk sat side by side at their joint press conference.
“Jim knows how close it’s been the last few years. It’s a tight, intense competition,” said Weir, who hails from Brights Grove, Ont. “Yeah, the score the last bunch of years has gone the U.S.’ way, but they’ve been very competitive matches. … I think it’s heading the right direction no matter what happens. Sure, it’s competitive. We want to win. We’re not putting any of that extra, ‘We need to do this to elevate the event.’
“It’s just a great competition, and we’re not adding any layers on top of that.”
Weir is the first Canadian to captain the International team, and it comes at a fitting venue, Royal Montreal, which hosted the Presidents Cup in 2007. Weir played in that event and led his team with 3 1/2 points, but the Americans won 19 1/2-14 1/2.
Weir said he’s yet to talk with the three Canadian players on his team — Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith — about what to expect, but that’s not to say that he won’t.
“This is at home in front of your own fans,” Weir said. “I guess for me I used the energy in a positive way when I was here in 2007. I didn’t take it as pressure. I took it as, ‘Just embrace it.’ I don’t know if I’ll ever have this kind of chance again to play in front of my home country fans. So I just tried to embrace it. That will probably be most of the message is enjoy yourself.”
International squad could re-energize 1-sided event
An International win would be just the second since the event began in 1994, and it could re-energize a one-sided event that’s not nearly as popular as the Ryder Cup.
But Furyk was posed with that idea by an American reporter last week and responded with multiple profanities, explaining how important winning is to any competitor.
“I would say it’s just an extremely emotional week as far as there’s ups, there’s downs,” Furyk added Tuesday. “The U.S. Team gets on a run, then the International Team gets on a run. It’s kind of a roller coaster ride all week. These guys expend a ton of energy. … A lot of it’s probably just letting [players] know how much — it’s a marathon.
“It’s a week long, and make sure that you save some energy for the end and pace yourself on the way.”
Furyk may have something to prove for himself, too. He was the U.S. captain at the 2018 Ryder Cup, where Team Europe steamrolled the Americans in Paris for a seven-point win.
He said he believes the U.S. team plays “a little bit more loose, we play a little more free” at Presidents Cups.
“So I’ll make some different changes,” Furyk said. “I’ll run this team a little different. I’ll draw from some good experiences that we’ve had in the past.
“The biggest question I always get asked is, would you, if you had the chance to go back and do something differently, would you? First time I heard the question, I started laughing. My answer was very simple. How arrogant would you have to be to say, ‘Nope, we didn’t win, but I wouldn’t do anything different at all’? Of course I would. I’d go back and change it.”
WATCH | Weir uses 3 of 6 captain’s picks on Canadian men for Presidents Cup:
International team captain Mike Weir selected Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., along with South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout, South Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Australia’s Min Woo Lee to round out his Presidents Cup squad.
