When Geoff Ogilvy finished choosing the International team for Medinah, Christiaan Bezuidenhout’s strokes-gained numbers had been pulled apart. Jason Day’s back had been discussed in several conversations. Pairings, personalities and nationalities all had a place in the room.
Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert did not get that treatment. They were outside the available player pool before Ogilvy and his assistants could decide whether either golfer belonged among the six captain’s picks.
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That is the useful part of Ogilvy’s disclosure to Australian media Tuesday. The International captain said he asked the PGA Tour more than once whether LIV Golf players might have a path into the Presidents Cup. He first raised it when his captaincy began two years ago, and he revisited it as the event approached.
“Yeah, I asked it a few times,” Ogilvy told Fox Sports Australia. The possibility was not immediately described to him as impossible, but no opening developed. For 2026, LIV players remained unavailable.
Ogilvy Had Real Choices to Make
The team he will take to Medinah was built under the rules in place. Si Woo Kim, Ryan Fox, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee, Tom Kim and Adam Scott qualified automatically. Ogilvy added Corey Conners, Sungjae Im, Nico Echavarria, Ryo Hisatsune, Nick Taylor and Bezuidenhout.
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Bezuidenhout is a good example of what captaincy looks like when the decision is truly Ogilvy’s. His world ranking did not tell the whole story. Ogilvy said the South African graded inside the team’s top 12 in the skill measures the staff studied, and he valued Bezuidenhout’s putting, iron play, record in the event and presence in the team room.
He selected Bezuidenhout because the underlying work supported it, even though the public ranking invited questions.
Day required another kind of judgment. Ogilvy wanted him, but the Australian’s back made four consecutive days uncertain. Presidents Cup rules require all 12 players to be available for singles. Ogilvy decided that rushing Day’s rehabilitation was too much risk for the player and the team.
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He later invited Day to assist the team. Day declined and chose to continue his rehabilitation. Ogilvy had Day in the available group, spoke with him, weighed the medical risk and declined to spend a pick.
The selection line
Who Ogilvy could actually evaluate
The reason a player missed Medinah matters as much as the name.
Selected
The final 12
Ogilvy weighed results, statistics, pairings and team-room fit.
Considered
Jason Day
Eligible, but his back could not guarantee four days and Sunday singles.
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Outside the pool
LIV players
Cameron Smith, Lucas Herbert and Joaquin Niemann were unavailable under the event’s eligibility structure.
No Presidents Cup eligibility change has been announced for 2026.
The LIV Question Never Reached the Golf
Smith and Herbert were discussed in the reporting because both would have expanded Australia’s representation and Ogilvy’s options. Joaquin Niemann is another accomplished International player on LIV who remained beyond the 2026 selection pool. This article is not an argument that any of the three was owed a place at Medinah. A captain should still have to compare form, health, course fit and foursomes possibilities before writing down a name.
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Ogilvy could not make those comparisons. The Presidents Cup is owned by the PGA Tour, and the eligibility structure kept LIV players out. Their golf was not rejected by the captain. It was never submitted to his selection process.
The United States leads the series 13-1-1, and the International side has not won since 1998. Smith’s form, Niemann’s fit and Herbert’s foursomes value never entered the captain’s calculation. Those are golf questions, and Ogilvy wanted the chance to answer them.
Medinah Is Already Full of Unknowns
Tournament snapshot
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What awaits at Medinah
Competition
Sept. 22-27
Course
Medinah No. 3
Series
U.S. leads 13-1-1
Last Intl. win
1998
Ogilvy’s OCM firm helped redesign Course No. 3, but the rebuilt layout has no relevant historical ShotLink data for his analytics team.
Competition runs Sept. 24-27 on Medinah Country Club’s rebuilt Course No. 3. Ogilvy knows the architecture better than most because his OCM firm worked on the redesign, yet he acknowledged that the staff has no useful ShotLink history from the new layout. Some course-fit decisions are educated guesses.
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There is also the harder work of finding pairings and keeping a 12-man group steady when a session turns. Ogilvy was part of the International leadership in Montreal, where a 5-0 loss on Thursday was followed by a 5-0 win Friday. He said the team did not reset well enough before Saturday. That lesson has more immediate value at Medinah than another debate about who is missing.
Still, the next roster should not begin with the same restriction by default. Ogilvy wants every International and American player available in future editions. The next Presidents Cup is scheduled for Kingston Heath in Australia in 2028, which gives the event time to decide whether its captain will finally receive the full notebook.
For this month, the request has already been answered. Ogilvy will take the 12 players he was permitted to choose and try to end a streak that has lasted since Royal Melbourne in 1998.
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PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on RG.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Sep 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the Golf section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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