Royal Melbourne Par-3 5th Hole

With the conclusion of the BMW Championship Sunday night, the Presidents Cup automatic qualifiers for both the American and International Teams were set. 20 men had guaranteed themselves a spot on the their respective teams, 21 if you count Tiger Woods’ promise to play the Frys.com Open leaving three spots up for grabs: two International captain’s picks and one American captain’s pick.

The Americans were picked based upon money earned beginning at the Wyndham Championship in 2009 up through this past week’s BMW Championship. The American team did not change as a virtue of the BMW Championship, although it very well could have. Some of the players shuffled positions, but the top-10 players going into Chicago were the same 10 players who qualified.

They are: 1. Matt Kuchar ($14,530,850), 2. Steve Stricker ($13,956,355), 3. Dustin Johnson ($13,444,489), 4. Webb Simpson ($12,716,373), 5. Nick Watney ($12,402,129), 6. Phil Mickelson ($12,358,553), 7. Bubba Watson ($10,040,726), 8. David Toms ($9,370,295), 9. Hunter Mahan ($9,206,692), 10. Jim Furyk ($9,122,803) and, of course, 29. Tiger Woods ($5,374,491).

The first thing that jumps out at you is “Jiminy Crickets these guys make a bunch of money.” The next thing is that maybe the new era of golf is starting to bud, but they aren’t all the way here yet. 8 of the 11 players are over 30 years old, but it looks like a pretty solid team so far.

For the Internationals, they pick their team by virtue of the World Rankings following the BMW Championship. Geoff Ogilivy played his way onto the team with his solo third-place finish at Cog Hill.

The team consists of: 1. Jason Day, 2. Adam Scott, 3. Charl Schwartzel, 4. K.J. Choi, 5. Kyung-tae Kim, 6. Retief Goosen, 7. Geoff Ogilvy, 8. Ernie Els, 9. Y.E. Yang, 10. Ryo Ishikawa.

As is always the case with these things, there’s no real reason to speculate on who the captain’s picks should be, but we have gotten a little insight from both sides.

Talking on a conference call, US Captain Fred Couples announced that Michael Jordan would once again be a special assistant for whatever reason. He also gave a hint as to who he was looking at for the final captain’s pick.

“I will spit this out once, and I won’t go too much into it but it’s pretty obvious,” Couples said. “I think Brandt Snedeker and Bill Haas and probably Keegan Bradley are the three leaders in this three‑ring circus right now to be the 12th guy.  Brandt Snedeker has been playing incredible golf and Bill Haas has, too.  And of course, Keegan Bradley has won twice this year, including a major.  He fought hard playing Saturday and Sunday here, and his name is right there.

“As far as anyone else, I think it wouldn’t be even a surprise if a Zach Johnson won next week, we still have another week, but that could easily change anyone’s mind. I want these guys to know that the Tour Championship is still deciding my second pick for the 12th spot on the team.”

Count Johnson out since he didn’t qualify for the Tour Championship and we pretty much have the three originals that Couples mentioned. Snedeker is probably the hottest player on the planet right now and Keegan Bradley not only has two wins, including a major, but also the endorsement of Phil Mickelson.

Consider Haas’ blow-up 42 on the back nine Sunday at the BMW and his father being an assistant captain and it would be hard to pick him without getting needled for playing favorites. That being said, it seems like a two-horse race between Snedeker and Bradley. Regardless of golf’s nature as a “what have you done for me lately” sport, Bradley has the popular vote it would seem.

As for the Internationals, with the competition being played Down Under with Aussie captain Greg Norman, one would think that the Aussie’s not on the team already have to be the leaders in the clubhouse. With Ogilvy securing his spot, he told the Australian Associated Press that he thinks Captain Shark should go with a fellow Australian.

“Greg would probably have been hoping that every Australian that he wanted on the team would qualify automatically so he didn’t have to pick them,” Ogilvy said. “There’s Robert [Allenby], who’s won multiple golf tournaments at Royal Melbourne, Aaron [Baddeley], who’s played pretty well this year and Vijay [Singh] is not far away. I wouldn’t want to be in Greg’s shoes.

“He’s got some great players to pick from, and I don’t think any players he picks are going to be wrong. If everything else is equal you’d probably pick the home country guy,” he said.

“The hometown advantage or the home country advantage is quite a big thing. But someone like Vijay has played every single Presidents Cup, so he brings a lot of experience. That all has to be weighed up.”

Norman has proven to be extremely loyal to his fellow Aussies as he showed in 2009 picking Adam Scott despite his obvious lack of form. Now with his home country as the host, Norman has another reason why picking Allenby and/or Baddeley would be a quality choice.

Stay tuned Sunday night when the picks are made official.