TOUR Championship에서 국제팀 선수들이 눈에 띄는 성적을 거두고 있다. 1라운드에서 국제팀 6명의 자동 진출자들이 합산 21언더를 기록하며, 9월 프레지던츠컵을 향한 기세를 입증했다.
01자동 진출 6인의 저력
프레지던츠컵 국제팀 캡틴 제프 오질비의 최종 12명 로스터는 이 대회 후 6명의 캡틴픽으로 완성될 예정이다. 하지만 현재 자동 진출자들은 대부분 자명하다. TOUR Championship 상위 6명에 진출한 선수들이 그들이다: Si Woo Kim, Hideki Matsuyama, Ryan Fox, Tom Kim, Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott.
이 여섯 선수는 1라운드에서 총 21언더를 기록했고, 전반적으로 67 이상의 스코어를 친 선수는 4명이었다. 첫날 내린 비로 East Lake의 난도가 완화된 측면도 있었지만, 국제팀 선수들의 실력이 그대로 드러나는 결과였다.
02Min Woo Lee의 돌풍
Min Woo Lee는 8언더 62로 1라운드를 리드하고 있다. 스코틀랜드에서 준우승을 거둔 그는 지난해 Texas Children's Houston Open 우승 이후 두 번째 투어 우승을 노리고 있다.
지난주 플레이오프 개막전은 아마도 골프코스에서 가장 슬픈 시간이었어요(55위). 이번 주는 완전히 새로운 주간이고, 모두 같은 스코어에서 시작하니까 '왜 좋은 태도로 열심히 해보지 않을까'라고 생각했어요.Min Woo Lee
03신계자 Ryan Fox의 영광
Open Championship 우승자 Ryan Fox도 4언더 66으로 좋은 스코어를 기록했다. 2022년과 2024년 프레지던츠컵에서 제외됐던 그에게 올해 팀 진출은 '아마도 올해의 최대 목표'였다. Royal Birkdale에서 클래렛 주그를 들어올린 그는 이제 Medinah Country Club에서의 팀 골프를 기다리고 있다.
공식은 아니지만, 그동안 함께한 이벤트와 디너들을 통해 팀과 정말 잘 지낼 수 있겠다는 생각이 듭니다. 팀의 일원이 되게 되어 기쁘고, 올해 특별한 뭔가를 할 수 있으면 좋겠어요.Ryan Fox
04Adam Scott의 평가
Adam Scott는 4언더 66을 기록하며 자신감을 드러냈다. 그는 국제팀의 현재 모습에 대해 긍정적인 평가를 내놓았다.
이번 주 우리 중 6명이 여기 있다는 게 정말 훌륭한 모습이라고 생각합니다. 지난 Memphis 디너에서 말했듯이, Ryan의 우승, Tom Kim의 우승, Min Woo의 Scottish 준우승, Si Woo의 매주 훌륭한 플레이, Sungjae Im의 복귀, Hideki의 매주 톱10... 우리의 기세가 정말 좋으니까요.Adam Scott
05프레지던츠컵을 향한 도전
국제팀이 직면한 현실은 여전히 엄혹하다. 1998년 우승 이후 28년 동안 우승하지 못했고, 미국은 2003년의 동점 이후 10연승을 거두고 있다. 캡틴 오질비는 자동 진출 6명 외에 Sungjae Im, Ryo Hisatsune, Jason Day, Corey Conners 등을 캡틴픽 후보로 검토하고 있다.
하지만 현재의 기세는 고무적이다. Scott의 말처럼 이 모멘텀을 3주 뒤까지 유지할 수 있다면, Medinah에서 국제팀의 도전은 충분히 설득력 있을 것으로 보인다.
06Original (English) — PGA TOUR
ATLANTA – This week at the TOUR Championship, the small field of players gathered at East Lake Golf Club are each playing for individual honors. One name goes on the FedExCup come Sunday, and there's plenty to play for in deciding the other 29 spots on the final leaderboard.
But after one round in Atlanta, a trend has emerged – one that could have implications for team play next month.
Half the field that qualified for the TOUR Championship are Americans, although that number dwindled down to 14 out of a remaining 29 when J.J. Spaun withdrew during the opening round because of a shoulder injury. It means that 15 of the participants hail from outside the U.S., and Thursday there was a decided pattern of low scores as it relates to the forming International Team for the upcoming Presidents Cup.
The top six for Geoff Ogilvy's squad will be decided after this event, with the Australian rounding out his 12-man roster with six captain's picks next week. But the automatic qualifiers seem pretty self-explanatory, given that only the top six in the latest standings have qualified for East Lake: Si Woo Kim, Hideki Matsuyama, Ryan Fox, Tom Kim, Min Woo Lee and Adam Scott.
Those six players combined to shoot 21 under in the opening round, led by Lee who takes a two-shot lead into Friday after a sizzling 8-under 62. All told, four of the six opened with rounds of 67 or better on a day when early rain took some of the sting out of East Lake's difficulty.
"To have six of us here this week, I think is a great showing," said Scott, who opened with a 4-under 66. "I said to the guys at the last dinner we had in Memphis, for me even coming in, just seeing Ryan's win, Tom Kim's win, Min Woo finishing second at the Scottish, Si Woo is playing fantastic every week, Sungjae Im is back, Hideki is top-10ing every week. The momentum looks really good for us, so that's fantastic."
Joining Scott with a 66 was The Open champion Ryan Fox, who described making his first Presidents Cup team as "probably the biggest goal of the year." Fox was on the outside looking in for both the 2022 and 2024 matches, but after lifting the claret jug at Royal Birkdale, he's all but assured of being on the team at Medinah Country Club.
"Obviously it's not official yet, but all the extended group outings we've had and dinners and stuff like that, we get along really, really well," Fox said. "I'm excited to be part of the team, and hopefully we can do something special this year."
Rest assured, it will remain a tall task for the International Team regardless of incoming form. They haven't won the Presidents Cup since 1998, and the Americans have now won 10 straight matches in the biennial competition since a tie in 2003.
But to have a chance in Chicago, they'll need some firepower, and that was in ample supply on Thursday. They're all chasing Lee, who was a runner-up in Scotland and remains in search of his second career TOUR victory after last year's triumph at the Texas Children's Houston Open.
Lee called the Playoffs opener two weeks ago in Memphis "probably the saddest I've been on the golf course," as he finished T55 out of 68 players, but he had plenty of reason to smile after grabbing the early lead with eight birdies and his tee-to-green game shining bright.
"This week was a brand new week, and we obviously play from scratch and everyone plays from the same score," Lee said. "Being out there, I thought, 'Why not give it a good crack and have a good attitude?' That was probably a thing that I had to work on over the last two weeks."
As Scott noted, the options for Ogilvy will extend beyond the six players in this week's field. Im closed his season with four straight finishes of T15 or better, while Ryo Hisatsune made 23 of 25 cuts this year in his bid to make his first team. Jason Day and Corey Conners offer veteran presence from prior matches.
But the matches next month will be decided by birdies and bogeys, and there were plenty of the former for the International contingent on Thursday. They'll each tee it up the rest of the week in hopes of advancing their own personal position in the season-long standings, but the potential to inch closer toward an upset at Medinah becomes a bigger consideration by the day.
"The momentum is huge," Scott said. "I don't know how we carry it three weeks on from now, but I think a lot of us are going to be playing before the Presidents Cup, too. Anything we can do to kind of keep that rolling and keep the confidence high."
