International team captain Nick Price has named Argentina's Emiliano Grillo and India's Anirban Lahiri to his 12-player team for the Presidents Cup at Liberty National in three weeks' time, while the USA has named veterans Phil Mickelson and Charley Hoffman.
Price and his opposite number, Steve Stricker, selected their two captains' picks today to complete the teams for this year's instalment of the teams competition that has been dominated by the USA.
Grillo as No. 11 on the rankings was an obvious pick for the Internationals while Lahiri, who was disappointing in the last Presidents Cup in South Korea, was a slight surprise.
Mickelson was widely-tipped to come into the USA team to continue his run of never having missed a Presidents Cup, while Hoffman had only narrowly missed automatic qualification.
Price told media that Grillo, 24, was a unanimous choice of his assistants and team-members. The Argentine is 62nd in the Fedex Cup rankings on the US PGA Tour this year and will compete in the BMW Championship in Chicago next week.
India's Lahiri went 0-3-0 at Korea two years ago, missing a short putt at the final hole of his singles match to lose a crucial point, but Price said he aimed to redeem himself in Jersey.
“We looked at the guys, really, who are full-time on the U.S. [PGA] TOUR because there’s a certain comfort having played here,” Price said.
The first 10 players on each team are picked from the Fedex rankings (USA players) and the world golf rankings (International), with two discretionary selections named later.
The USA has won all but one of the 11 Presidents Cup competitions, but won by just a single point in Korea at the most recent edition.
There are three Australians in the International team, all of whom qualified automatically — Jason Day, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman. All three have competed in the Cup before with Scott being arguably the veteran of the International team.
U.S. TEAM
Dustin Johnson
Jordan Spieth
Justin Thomas
Rickie Fowler
Daniel Berger
Brooks Koepka
Kevin Kisner
Patrick Reed
Matt Kuchar
Kevin Chappell
Charley Hoffman*
Phil Mickelson*
Captain: Steve Stricker
INTERNATIONAL TEAM
Hideki Matsuyama
Jason Day
Adam Scott
Louis Oosthuizen
Marc Leishman
Charl Schwartzel
Branden Grace
Si Woo Kim
Jhonattan Vegas
Adam Hadwin
Emiliano Grillo*
Anirban Lahiri*
Captain: Nick Price
*Captain’s picks.