U.S., INTERNATIONALS SET TO CLASH AT PRESIDENTS CUP

MORE THAN 25 YEARS SINCE INCEPTION, BIENNIAL EVENT'S GLOBAL IMPACT CONTINUES TO BE FELT

To measure the scope of the Presidents Cup, a suggestion is to travel back in time - 28 years, to be exact - when this international team golf tournament was introduced.

It was the brainchild of Tim Finchem, back when he was a deputy for PGA TOUR Commissioner Deane Beman. But when Beman handed the reigns over to Finchem early in the summer of 1994, going full throttle on the debut of Presidents Cup consumed him. The naysayers were lined up, but Finchem was steadfast in his belief that great players from beyond the borders of America and Europe deserved to compete on a global stage in an international team match. Should you point to the lopsided results - the Americans are 11-1-1 and have won eight in a row - you would be an egregious point-misser.

The Presidents Cup was about bringing the game a little closer together because global golf, Finchem insisted, was here to stay. He knew it would be a somewhat awkward fit at first, but he begged for patience and offered a vision that a lot of folks struggled with.

To wit, there would be a day when the world's best players competed in the same tournaments dozens of time per year and American golf fans would know the international stars quite well.

If he were the type to seek the limelight, Finchem could take a bow. But instead, let's take a measurement to indicate how his vision has played out beautifully.

In 1994, half the International Team needed to introduce themselves to their American counterparts at the Robert Trent Jones Club in Gainesville, Virginia. Aussie Bradley Hughes had only played in six PGA TOUR tournaments that season, while Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe (five), Peter Senior (three) of Australia, and Frank Nobilo (two) attended even fewer. As for Robert Allenby of Australia and Tsukasa Watanabe of Japan, they hadn't played at all.