Presidents Cup 2026: Dates, Teams and Format at Medinah
The 16th Presidents Cup runs September 24 to 27, 2026 at Medinah Country Club No. 3 near Chicago. Brandt Snedeker captains the United States, Geoff Ogilvy the International Team, on a course Ogilvy's own design firm rebuilt. Thirty matches, one point each, first side to 15.5 points takes the cup. The United States lead the series 13-1-1 and the Internationals have not won since 1998. Sources: Presidents Cup, PGA Tour, Golf Channel, Golf Digest.
The context
The Presidents Cup 2026 lands at Medinah Country Club from September 24 to 27, the 16th edition of golf’s other team match and the first big event on a course that barely resembles the one Chicago remembers. Course No. 3 closed in October 2022 and reopened in 2024 after a $23.5 million rebuild by the Australian firm OCM Golf, which added three new holes, rerouted the closing stretch along Lake Kadijah and traded parkland softness for something closer to the Melbourne Sandbelt.
The man who ran that rebuild is also the International Team captain. Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 US Open champion, is the principal at OCM, which makes this the rare team match where one side’s captain has spent two years walking the host course with a clipboard. Whether that translates into points is another matter, because the record he is trying to move is bleak: 13 United States wins, one International win, one tie across 15 editions, and nothing for his side since Royal Melbourne in 1998.
Brandt Snedeker’s American team looks the part again. Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Russell Henley, Sam Burns and Collin Morikawa qualified automatically. The six picks, announced on September 1, mixed the expected (Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay) with three rookies: Chris Gotterup, Jacob Bridgeman and the 21-year-old Jackson Koivun, who won in his third career start after turning professional out of Auburn.
Ogilvy’s twelve are Si Woo Kim, Hideki Matsuyama, Ryan Fox, Tom Kim, Min Woo Lee and Adam Scott by qualification, plus Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Corey Conners, Nico Echavarria, Ryo Hisatsune, Sungjae Im and Nick Taylor. Scott is the constant, playing his eleventh Presidents Cup. Echavarria, Hisatsune and Taylor are debutants. The one name the format will not let him have is any European, which is what keeps this match structurally lopsided: the Ryder Cup takes the continent that has actually been beating the Americans.
The maths is straightforward. Thirty points, one per match, 15.5 to win. Five four-ball matches Thursday, five foursomes Friday, four and four on Saturday, then twelve singles on Sunday. Nearly half the points are still on the table when the final session begins, which is the format’s way of insisting that a deficit is survivable. Coverage runs on Golf Channel, NBC and Peacock in the United States and Sky Sports Golf in the United Kingdom, and nobody is playing for a cheque: the Presidents Cup pays out to charities the players choose.
People also ask
True or false?
Europeans are ineligible by design. The International Team is drawn from outside Europe, which is the whole point of the format. (Presidents Cup)
They won once, at Royal Melbourne in 1998, and tied in 2003. One win in fifteen tries, but it is not zero. (Presidents Cup)
Same club, largely new golf course. OCM Golf gutted it between 2022 and 2024, added three holes and rerouted the finish. (Golf Digest)
Geoff Ogilvy's firm OCM Golf led the $23.5 million rebuild. A captain who knows where every green sheds a ball is a genuine edge. (Golf Digest)
No prize money. The proceeds go to charities nominated by the players and captains. (Presidents Cup)
He heads the six automatic qualifiers, alongside Young, Clark, Henley, Burns and Morikawa. (PGA Tour)