Royal Montreal Golf Club plays host to the 15th Presidents Cup this week, and while it has already served as the location for the biennial contest in the past, this time around may look a little different. Returning to the site of the 2007 competition when the United States prevailed 19.5 to 14.5, the 2024 Presidents Cup welcomes an eclectic cast of characters with an eclectic cast of skillsets ready for the task at hand.
The game is decidedly different than it was 17 years ago when players like Scott Verplank and David Toms led the U.S. side to victory with undefeated showings. Hardly bombers -- more dink and dunk type players -- Verplank and Toms weren't the only ones to find success as Canada's very own (and this year's International captain) Mike Weir enjoyed a week to remember compiling a 3-1-1 record including a Sunday singles victory over Tiger Woods.
This does beg the question, though: Will the same type of player that thrived in 2007 do so again in 2024?
"It's [Royal Montreal's] pretty demanding," Corey Conners said. "There's some long holes, I think. It's tricky all the way around. There's some tricky tee shots. The fairways are really important to hit out here. The rough can be penalizing and a little bit thick. I think a big challenge is getting the ball in the fairway. And obviously to win the Cup, you're going to need to make a lot of putts. So that's another pretty important aspect."
In short, the answer to the above inquiry is yes and no. While shorter, accurate drivers of the golf ball like Verplank and Toms should have their fill of scoring opportunities playing out of the middle of the fairway -- think Collin Morikawa and Russell Henley -- distance still reigns supreme in the modern game.
Some of those accurate drivers just happen to be on the longer side, too. It would be more shocking than not if world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler wasn't a good fit for Royal Montreal having just gone through a season where he won on a wide array of golf courses like TPC Sawgrass, Harbour Town Golf Links, Bay Hill and Augusta National.
Scheffler leads this field over the last three months from tee to green, off the tee and on approach, but he also ranks second behind only Henley in terms of driving accuracy and 13th in terms of driving distance. With Royal Montreal appearing to be a ball striker's paradise, Scheffler is set up to avenge his 2022 performance where he went 0-3-1.
"I think it'll be important to leave your golf ball in the right spots, especially coming into the greens," Patrick Cantlay said. "There's a lot of slope on these greens, mostly back to front, but there's little sections in each and every green for the most part. Getting it in the right direction, and then if the green speeds pick up, being below the hole I think will be key to holing putts."
Scheffler's fellow two-time major champion, Xander Schauffele, checks in near the top in just about every statistical category as well. Oh yeah, he also ranks 10th in driving accuracy and sixth in driving distance. He also ranks fifth in strokes gained putting as opposed to Scheffler, who ranks 11th.
The top two Americans (and top two players in the game) should play well, but what about some of the others in the competition? The aforementioned Morikawa and Henley have the makeup to perform to the best of their abilities as accurate drivers with strong ball-striking metrics and improved short games.
Keegan Bradley and Brian Harman are players who could go either way. Harman remains accurate off the tee, boasts quality ball-striking numbers but has struggled with his historically competent short game. Meanwhile, Bradley's summer -- really, his entire season -- was buoyed by his win at the BMW Championship. The strokes-gained metrics are not anything to write home about: He ranks 21st in total strokes gained in this field, but the U.S. Ryder Cup captain is one of just four players to rank top 10 in both driving accuracy and driving distance.
As for those other two players, well, that would be Hideki Matsuyama and Tom Kim. Matsuyama makes sense given the entirety of his 2024, but the more compelling figure in this duo is Kim. He displayed more bark than bite in his debut at Quail Hollow going 2-3-0 and was, candidly, a much better putter back then. The young South Korean enters this year's Presidents Cup as the best iron player not named Scottie Scheffler but also as the worst putter in the field. That club could be the difference maker not only for Kim but the entire International team.
"This season has probably been the worst putting season I've had so far," Kim said. "I've definitely worked pretty hard after Memphis. And obviously, match play, it's a sprint not a marathon. So trying to do a lot of putting stuff and actually made a lot of changes, actually, the past few weeks just with setup and green reading, and changed a lot of fundamentals and been putting kind of decent. I'm kind of excited to see how the week goes."
Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Patrick McDonald and Greg DuCharme preview the 2024 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.