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No S. Koreans qualify for Presidents Cup, Danny Lee makes team

September 8, 2015

Danny Lee, from New Zealand, hits from the fairway on the 10th hole during the first round of the Bridgestone Invitational golf tournament at Firestone Country Club, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in Akron, Ohio. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — No South Korean golfer qualified for the 2015 Presidents Cup to be held here in October, with one youngster hoping to be selected by his captain later this week.

The Presidents Cup, a biennial competition pitting the Americans versus a team of non-European players, will come to Asia for the first time this fall, as Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon, a metropolitan city just west of Seoul, will serve as the host from Oct. 6 to 11.

The qualifying window for the Presidents Cup closed on Monday, local time, with the conclusion of the Deutsche Bank Championship on the PGA Tour at TPC Boston in Norton, Massachusetts. The 10 best non-American and non-European players on the Official World Golf Rankings through the Deutsche Bank Championship made the International Team on merit.

An Byeong-hun was the top South Korean on the Presidents Cup standings at No. 12. He won the BMW PGA Championship in May in his first victory on the European Tour, and he’s ranked 57th in the world.

The 23-year-old may still make the International Team when captain Nick Price announces his two choices Wednesday morning, Korean time.

An has struggled after that victory, though, posting no top-10s in eight appearances on the PGA Tour and the European Tour and missing the cut three times.

Steven Bowditch of Australia, who won the AT&T Byron Nelson in May on the PGA Tour, is at 11th. Both An and Bowditch have never played at the Presidents Cup.

Further down the standings, George Coetzee of South Africa, at No. 14, has two European Tour wins in 2015, and he also tied for seventh at the PGA Championship. Australian veteran John Senden finished at No. 13, but he is winless in 2015 and hasn’t had a top-10 at a major this year.

Price has said it would be “sad” not to have any player from the host nation. He will make his two captain’s picks Tuesday.

He will, however, have one player born in South Korea. Danny Lee, who was born in Incheon but moved to New Zealand at eight, finished 10th on the standings. He will be making his Presidents Cup debut in his hometown.

Lee won the Greenbrier Classic in July for his first PGA Tour victory.

The International Team will be top heavy, with Jason Day, world No. 3 and PGA Championship winner, leading the way. He is the only non-European international player inside the top 10 in the world rankings.

South African Louis Oosthuizen, who tied for second at the U.S. Open and the Open Championship this year, finished second to Day on the Presidents Cup standings.

Former world No. 1 Adam Scott was third, followed by Hideki Matsuyama, Branden Grace, Marc Leishman and Anirban Lahiri. Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, Thai veteran Thongchai Jaidee and Danny Lee rounded out the top 10.

The United States, captained by Jay Haas, will field a stacked squad featuring world No. 1 Jordan Spieth, who won two majors in 2015, and the 2015 Open champion Zach Johnson.

They’re joined by two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, the Deutsche Bank Championship winner Rickie Fowler, and seasoned veteran Jim Furyk, who has played in seven Presidents Cups.

The U.S. has five of the world’s top-10 golfers.

The captain’s son, Bill Haas, finished at 11th on the standings, followed by PGA Tour winners J.B. Holmes, Charley Hoffman and Billy Horschel.

The U.S. Team standings were based on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup points earned from the 2013 BMW Championship through the 2015 Deutsche Bank Championship, with the points garnered in 2015 doubled.

Tiger Woods, the former world No. 1 who has fallen on hard times recently with injuries and mediocre play, finished 122nd on the standings.

The U.S. Team has won eight of the 10 Presidents Cup so far, with the 2003 competition ending in a tie. The lone International victory came in 1998.

The combined score in the Americans’ eight victories is 153-113. They’ve won the last five Cups by 95-75, with a victory margin of at least three points each time.