U.S. team might be loaded with Presidents Cup rookies

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, Australia -- With The Presidents Cup 2011 only a few months away, a look at the team standings shows a mix of new faces and veteran players competing for positions on both the United States and International Team rosters when the biennial event returns to The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Victoria, Nov. 15-20, 2011.

Twenty-three of the 25 winners on the PGA TOUR in 2011 are players who are eligible for either the United States or International Teams for The Presidents Cup. Each team consists of 12 players. Players on the outside looking in can begin their campaign to earn a spot on the team during the final stretch of golf that begins this week with the U.S. Open.

The International Team will consist of the top 10 international players (excluding those eligible for the European Ryder Cup team) from the Official World Golf Ranking as of Sunday, Sept 18 (through the BMW Championship). The United States Team is made up of the top 10 U.S. players who earned the most official PGA TOUR money beginning with the 2009 Wyndham Championship through the 2011 BMW Championship, with points valued doubled for money earned in 2011 over money earned in 2009-2010. International Team Captain Greg Norman and United States Team Captain Fred Couples will each select two Captain's selections to complete their teams of 12 on Monday, Sept 26.

Of the players in the top 20 in the standings, 14 have never played in The Presidents Cup, including Matt Kuchar who is leading the U.S. Team standings. Of the players in the top 10, five would be playing in The Presidents Cup for the first time in their career (Kuchar-1, Bubba Watson-4, Nick Watney-5, Dustin Johnson-6 and Bill Haas-10). Also in the top 10 are players with far more experience such as Phil Mickelson-3, who has played on all eight previous Presidents Cup teams. Also currently in the top 10 are Steve Stricker-2, Hunter Mahan-7, Jim Furyk-8 and David Toms-9, who have combined to play in the event 14 times.

Since The Presidents Cup was held in 2009 at Harding Park, no player on the PGA TOUR has been more consistent than Matt Kuchar. Beginning with the 2010 PGA TOUR season, Kuchar has 19 top-10 finishes, including his victory at The Barclays in 2010.

In total, the current top 10 in the U.S. Standings have accounted for 20 PGA TOUR victories since the start of the 2010 season.

The International Team standings are led by the winner of this year's Masters Tournament, Charl

Schwartzel, who would also be making his first-ever Presidents Cup appearance. Also in line to make the team for the first time are Australian Jason Day-3, South African Louis Oosthuizen-9 and South Korea's Kyung-tae Kim-10. South Africa currently leads the way in the standings with five players (Schwartzel-1, Ernie Els-5 , Retief Goosen-6, Tim Clark-7 and Oosthuizen-9) in the top 10 in the standings. The top 10 includes winners of two of the last four Major Championships in Schwartzel and Oosthuizen as well as the winners of the past two PLAYERS Championships in K.J. Choi and Tim Clark.

With the tournament being held for a second time at Royal Melbourne, several Australian players are keen on making this year's team. Jason Day, Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy are currently inside the top 10. Robert Allenby-11, Aaron Baddeley-14, Brendan Jones-19, John Senden-23 and Stuart Appleby-24 are all within striking distance inside the top 25.

The Presidents Cup, a team match play competition featuring 24 of the world's top golfers -- 12 from the United States and 12 from around the world, excluding Europe -- is held every two years, and since 1996 has alternated between United States and international venues. The Presidents Cup was developed to give the world's best non-European players an opportunity to compete in international team match-play competition. The U.S. Team has won six of the eight previous Presidents Cups, and the only win by the International Team came at the 1998 event in Melbourne. The 2003 Presidents Cup ended in a tie.

Players are not personally paid for their participation in The Presidents Cup; there is no purse or prize money. Each competitor, instead, designates charities or golf-related projects of his choice to receive a portion of the funds raised through the staging of each Presidents Cup. On behalf of the players, captains and captains' assistants, more than $4.2 million was distributed to charitable causes from The Presidents Cup 2009. Additional donations were made to The First Tee of San Francisco and the Victorian Bushfire Appeal in 2009 and to the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal following the Queensland floods in March 2011. In total, more than $23 million has been raised for charity since the inception of The Presidents Cup in 1994.

The Presidents Cup will return to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, November 15-20, 2011, where it will be played at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club. For more information about The Presidents Cup, please click here