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Ogilvy Takes His Chances at Winning the Presidents Cup
Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Is Geoff Ogilvy the right man for the job?

With day one in the books, the answer is a resounding yes, but there is a long way to go from Tuesday’s announcement that Ogilvy was named the ninth International President Cup Captain to a September Thursday in 2026.

“It's a humbling thing, it's a great honor,” Ogilvy said from Medinah Country Club, the site of the 2026 cup being named the International Captain. “I'm really looking forward and excited for it. Medinah is a place where we've done a lot of work, my company the last two, three years.”

Ogilvy, 47, played on three consecutive International Teams (2007, 2009, 2011), where he amassed a 7-6-1 record. And has also served as a captain’s assistant in the last four iterations of the event.

Like past captain Ernie Els, Ogilvy is an independent thinker, experienced, and focused on finding a way to break a string of 13 Cups in which the Internationals have left empty handed with a 0-12-1 record.

Ogilvy believes he may have a secret weapon in the International Shield that Els introduced at the 2019 Cup at Royal Melbourne during his captaincy.

“It's a stroke of genius, really,” Ogilvy said of the introduction of the shield. “He really understood that we sort of needed sort of the shield that he came up with, with his -- it's sort of like a banner or a symbol that we can all sort of unite under.”

Els understood the need to bring together players from different countries, including South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and South America.

Since the Internationals come from different cultures, the need for a unifying force was what Els hoped to accomplish, and now with the fourth Presidents Cup playing for the shield, Ogilvy hopes the tables will finally turn.

“It's been really powerful, actually,” Ogilvy said of the shield. “It's just gotten stronger and stronger, the bond within the group over the last few Presidents Cups since the shield was introduced, the chat groups that go on the phones. They go on longer and longer before and after the Presidents Cup. The banter is all there. I think Presidents Cup is a little bit more front of mind for international players outside of the Presidents Cup years than it used to be before, a bit more like the Europeans in the Ryder Cup.”

One other issue that may affect Ogilvy chances is whether LIV players will be on his team next Fall.

As you would expect from Ogilvy, he didn’t duck the question and addressed it straightforwardly, which you can expect for the next 16 months.

At some point in the golf world, it's going to get aligned, and if that happens in the next 16 months, that will be cool because there are some good players from the international side of things on that side of the ledger, if you like,” Ogilvy said. “I'll be picking from the pool of players that's put in front of me and lead it to smarter people than me to work out things like that.”

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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