Africa-Press – South-Africa. This month’s Presidents Cup has come under scrutiny as the effects of LIV Golf became apparent.
International captain Trevor Immelman was forced to make six captains picks for this month’s Presidents Cup in Charlotte after the withdrawal of world number two Cameron Smith and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, who signed on for the rebel series.
One of the six picks is Presidents Cup rookie Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who, along with Immelman, will fly the South African flag high.
Bezuidenhout is the second-highest ranked SA golfer at 64th behind Louis Oosthuizen, who has continued to drop down the rankings at 31st with LIV Golf events not rewarding world golf ranking points.
For the 2021/22 PGA Tour season, Bezuidenhout finished 51st on the FedEx Cup standings, playing in 24 events and missing only four cuts.
Bezuidenhout, who represented South Africa at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, recorded 10 Top 25 finishes, one top 10 and a tied for second at the John Deere Classic in March.
Immelman, a renowned commentator and analyst on the PGA Tour, says he has been more than impressed with Bezuidenhout’s putting game this season.
“Yeah, for sure. I’ve been following Christiaan’s progress closely over the last couple of years and really have been impressed with his consistency and his demeanour,” said Immelman on Tuesday.
“The other thing that I really love about his game since he has started playing more here in the US is his putting. It really is a weapon.
“He’s been in the top six in the strokes gained stat in the last few seasons out on the PGA Tour, and that for me is extremely impressive when you consider that a lot of these golf courses he’s playing for the first time. So he doesn’t have all that much experience on the green complexes, but yet still he ranks very highly in that putting statistic, which I think is extremely important in 18-hole match-play when, to be honest, it’s a sprint out there. You’ve got to get off to a good start and make a lot of birdies.”
Bezuidenhout’s story is relatively known in golfing circles and Immelman says that having a fighter like Bezuidenhout is what this International team needs.
“The other thing with Christiaan is with the adversity that he’s faced in his life when he was a kid and everything he went through, he’s got a certain amount of toughness about him deep down. It’s not in an arrogant way,” said Immelman.
“It’s something that really is a tangible that I think gives him a huge advantage. He’s absolutely somebody that I wanted on our team.”
The Presidents Cup will be played from 22-25 September at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, with US President Joe Biden, an honorary chairperson for the 14th event.
The US team has won 11 of the 13 previous Presidents Cups, and the only win by the International Team came at the 1998 event in Melbourne. There was a historic 17-17 tie in 2003 when the event was held in South Africa.
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