The International Team for the 2022 Presidents Cup is starting to take shape.
The qualification period for captain Trevor Immelman’s squad wrapped up at the end of the 2022 BMW Championship, with the top eight players on the points list earning a spot on the team for the biennial event against the United States to be held Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In a recent Q&A with Golfweek, Immelman said the players who have left for LIV Golf and are currently unable to play in the event have “hurt us immensely,” and expanded on the costly loses of Louis Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer, saying “We’ve lost two guys that were absolutely going to be there at Quail Hollow.”
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Immelman will announce his four captain’s picks at a later date.
The Presidents Cup is a match play event with 30 total matches, comprised of a 12-person U.S. Team and 12-person International Team. The U.S. leads 11-1-1.
Let’s take a look at the eight internationals who qualified.
More: Meet the six Americans to qualify for the Presidents Cup
Cameron Smith
One of the biggest question marks surrounding Immelman’s side will be Smith, the Players winner and Champion Golfer of the Year, for his connection with LIV. Smith made his debut for the Internationals in his native Australia in 2019 and compiled a 1-1-1 record. Since that time he’s gone on to become one of the best players in the world who shows up when the lights are the brightest.
If the Internationals are to have a shot at winning for the first time on foreign soil, they’re going to need Smith.
Hideki Matsuyama
And this guy.
Matsuyama has made four appearances in the competition and holds a 6-7-4 record. He’ll be a rare veteran in a youth-laden team going up against an American squad not short on confidence after their Ryder Cup rout of the Europeans last year.
This season Matsuyama has missed just one cut and has six top 10s and a pair of wins at the Zozo Championship and Sony Open.
Sungjae Im
Similar to Smith, Im also debuted at Royal Melbourne and earned a 1-1-1 record. The pair were the lone Internationals to win a Sunday singles match, with Im tying the best result of the day with his 4-and-3 victory over Gary Woodland.
Im won the Shriners last fall and recently earned consecutive T-2 finishes at the 3M Open and Wyndham Championship.
Joaquin Niemann
Niemann went winless in his 2019 debut but did earn half a point alongside Ben An after tying Tony Finau and Matt Kuchar. He’s the first player from Chile to play in the Presidents Cup and will enter the competition coming off a solid season that featured a marquee win at the Genesis Invitational and 10 top 25 finishes. The Internationals will need a spark and a player to get in the mix, and a more experienced, confident Niemann could play that role.
Joohyung 'Tom' Kim
It’s been a big month for Kim, who won his first PGA Tour event earlier this month at the Wyndham Championship and has since played his way to his first Presidents Cup. The South Korean has three top 10 finishes this season with his Wyndham win, third place showing at the Genesis Scottish Open and seventh at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Corey Conners
After missing out in 2019, Conners will also make his debut next month at Quail Hollow.
“I’m pretty quiet, I guess. I’ll be a rookie, but I’ll try and be one of the leaders on the team, lead more by example,” Conners said, “and hopefully play some good golf and let that take care of things.”
Conners hasn’t won since the 2019 Valero Texas Open but he’s a consistently strong player who can get it done in match play, as seen with his third-place finish at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in March and tie for fifth at the BMW Championship.
Adam Scott
By far the most experienced player on the team at this point, Scott will break his own record with his 10th appearance for the International side. The Aussie has a 16-22-6 record, 5-4-0 in singles, and will need to come up big for Immelman as one of the few players who have had success in the event.
With 19 points to his name, the 42-year-old is just two points behind Ernie Els, who holds the all-time International lead with 21 (Phil Mickelson holds the competition record with 32.5).
Mito Pereira
The third rookie to qualify, Pereira has been a name fans of the International side have been waiting for. The Chilean earned an automatic promotion to the PGA Tour from the Korn Ferry Tour after winning three events in the 2020-21 season and has finished inside the top 25 eight times this season, with three inside the top 10 at the season-opening Fortinet Championship, PGA Championship and Charles Schwab Challenge.
