Brandt Snedeker has barely recovered from his time at Bethpage Black as a vice captain to Keegan Bradley, heading last week to the PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship before appearing Tuesday outside of Chicago at year-out kickoff event for the Presidents Cup.
Yep, those involved have yet to decompress from the recently completed 15–13 European Ryder Cup victory.
But the PGA Tour—not the PGA of America—runs the Presidents Cup, and it had a “one-year-to-go” event on Tuesday at Medinah Country Club outside of Chicago, site of next year’s Presidents Cup—and where the 2012 Ryder Cup was played.
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As part of the proceedings, Snedeker, who will captain the 2026 U.S. team, along with International captain Geoff Ogilvy, who redesigned the Medinah No. 3 course, were on hand and held a news conference.
Snedeker, 44, a nine-time PGA Tour winner, competed in the 2012 Ryder Cup as well as 2016, going 4–2. The latter of those events was the first year after the Americans had put together a “task force” to address the frustration of continual losses to Europe.
In the aftermath of another frustrating loss—the first time an away team won since Europe’s 2012 victory—there have been calls to blow it all up again, a notion that Snedeker suggested won’t happen as he hopes to bridge between the events.
“I think having guys kind of serve underneath a captain so they understand what they’re getting themselves into, so when they do step in that captaincy role, they’re more prepared and understanding of what’s going to go into that whole week and really the year build up to,” Snedeker said.
“So I think that continuity is important, something that the task force has kind of been put in charge of and I hope they kind of keep going down that path.”
Bradley broke that mold somewhat with his appointment as this year’s captain. He had not been involved with the Ryder Cup since playing in 2014. He made the 2024 Presidents Cup team, but had never been a vice captain.
Snedeker served under captain Jim Furyk at the 2024 Presidents Cup in Montreal and both were assistants to Bradley this year at Bethpage.
That was the idea, among others, a decade ago when the task force was formed. The hope was to create continuity between events and groom future captains while getting players familiar with those who would be leading them.
“A lot of it is trying to pass down some information amongst the teams,” said Furyk, who played in his first of nine Ryder Cups in 1997. “The one thing we have that is unique is we do this every year. We do it with two different organizations. But for the players it’s still Team USA. It’s trying to hand down some knowledge and to keep a lot of symmetry from year to year. And that’s kind of what we do.”
Furyk noted that the Ryder Cup had been going back and forth for a decade before the European win on Sept. 28.
“You’re always going to have a knee-jerk reaction for whoever it might be,” he said. “There’s going to be that cry to break things down and start over. That’s kind of what we did in 2014 with the task force. Can we get better as an organization? Yes. But I don’t think you break everything down and start over. If you keep building toward the ultimate goal and we can get there.”
Furyk, who captained the 2018 Ryder Cup team, has been an assistant four times. He’s also been an assistant captain for the Presidents Cup twice. He said he’s not spoken to Snedeker about doing that next year, but it makes some sense if you want continuity.
What doesn’t make sense is the Americans dominance in the Presidents Cup compared to the Ryder Cup. Going back to its inception in 1994, the Americans have won all but two matches, losing in 1998 and tying in 2003. The Americans have since won 10 in a row while losing eight of the last 11 Ryder Cups.
It has sometimes been suggested that the Presidents Cup is a detriment to the U.S. Ryder Cup effort, a view that Ogilvy understands to a degree, although he said the International side has to overcome not having to go two years between events.
Geoff Ogilvy will try to captain the International Team to a rare Presidents Cup win next year. / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
“It would work either way,” said Ogilvy, who won the 2006 U.S. Open and went 7–6–1 in three Presidents Cup appearances. “It’s interesting that I was hearing [former European captain] Paul McGinley on the broadcast say they used to have the Seve Trophy in between [Ryder Cups]. And they got rid of it and then they brought it back [now called the Team Cup] because they felt there was an advantage in doing that.
“I think it’s how you use that one every year and use it to their advantage.”
Six players who were on the Presidents Cup team last year were not on this year’s Ryder Cup team, which highlights some of the volatility that can occur.
Max Homa, the best U.S player in Rome two years ago, was on the Presidents Cup team but not the Ryder Cup team. Sahith Theegala saw his form fall off this year. Major champions from 2023, Brian Harman and Wyndham Clark, were not part of the Ryder Cup, nor was Tony Finau. Bradley played last year but decided against being a playing captain this year.
Snedeker is bound to see that kind of turnover again and who knows how a Ryder Cup team will look in two years.
“The captain always seems to get the praise or the blame,” Snedeker said. “But all the successful teams are always a collective of combined knowledge of everybody. There’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle.”
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