Depleted International Presidents Cup Team Finalized With Six Captain's Picks

With Cam Smith and Joaquin Niemann among several at LIV Golf and ineligible, captain Trevor Immelman's team looks far different than it would have months ago.

International Presidents Cup captain Trevor Immelman added six at-large picks Tuesday to a depleted team that will take on an American squad later this month at Quail Hollow Golf Club.

The 2008 Masters champion who assisted captain Ernie Els at the highly competitive 2019 Presidents Cup in Australia announced the addition of South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Australia’s Cam Davis, South Korea’s Si Woo Kim, South Korea’s K.H. Lee, Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz and Canada’s Taylor Pendrith.

There is a Cam from Australia on the Presidents Cup International team—Cam Davis :: Rob Schumacher/USA Today

They join the automatic qualifiers who had made the team through the BMW Championship: Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, South Korea’s Sungjae Im, South Korea’s Tom Kim, Canada’s Corey Connors, Chile’s Mito Pereira and Australia’s Adam Scott.

The matches take place Sept. 22-25 in Charlotte.

The International squad lost several players to LIV Golf, all of whom are not eligible to compete in PGA Tour events, including the Presidents Cup. The biggest losses were British Open champion Cam Smith, ranked second in the world, and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, who won the Genesis Invitational earlier this year and made it to the Tour Championship. After their departure, Immelman's number of captain's picks was increased from four to six and the number of automatic qualifiers dropped from eight to six.

Other potential members of the team who went to LIV Golf include Marc Leishman, Carlos Ortiz, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace.

The competition dates to 1994 and has seen just one International victory and a tie. The Americans lead 11-1-1.