To celebrate the one-year countdown to the 2017 Presidents Cup, International Team Captain Nick Price and U.S. Team Captain Steve Stricker announced their captains’ assistants.
Stricker appointed Fred Couples, Davis Love III and Tiger Woods as his captain’s assistants; and Price named Ernie Els, Tony Johnstone and Geoff Ogilvy as his captain’s assistants. Ernie is new to the role of captain’s assistant, but he has had plenty of experience in Presidents Cups, competing eight times (1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2001, 2013), which is tied for most by an International Team member, with Vijay Singh, and he owns an overall record of 20-18-2. He is tied for second all-time (with Singh and Tiger Woods) for most match appearances in Presidents Cup history (40), and Els has won more matches than any other International Team member (20).
Ernie maintains that he is still committed to trying to play his way on to the team, for what would be a record ninth appearance for the Internationals, but nevertheless he could not hide his pride at being chosen as part of the leadership team. “To be with Nick is going to be wonderful,” said Ernie. “We go back a long time. He was my mentor on the TOUR, and I played a lot of practice rounds with him, got a lot of advice from Nick. We’ve become really great friends since then, and I can’t wait to help him. It’s going to be an unreal Presidents Cup. To be at Liberty National looking at the financial district and the rest of Manhattan, it’s going to be incredible. The energy that comes out of that place is just crazy, and I think – I couldn’t see anything else beating that venue. I think it’s just going to be terrific.”
“Ernie and I have been good friends for a long time, and I’m thrilled he has agreed to join the International Team as a captain’s assistant,” said Price. “His Presidents Cup and match-play records are exceptional, and he is extremely well-respected by his fellow players, which is such an asset in the team room and on the golf course during a competition like this. I am confident he will add an incredible dynamic to the Team over the next year and during event week.”
About the Presidents Cup
The Presidents Cup, a team match play competition featuring 24 of the world’s top golfers – 12 from the United States and 12 from around the world, excluding Europe – is held every two years, and since 1996 has alternated between United States and international venues. The Presidents Cup was developed to give the world’s best non-European players an opportunity to compete in international team match-play competition. The U.S. Team has won nine of the 11 previous Presidents Cups, and the only outright win by the International Team came at the 1998 event in Melbourne. A historic 17-17 tie came in 2003 when the event was held in South Africa (pictured below).
The Presidents Cup is a unique golf event in that there is no purse or prize money; instead, each player, captain and captain’s assistant allocates an equal portion of the funds generated to charities of his choice. Since the inception of the Presidents Cup in 1994, more than $38.4 million has been raised for charity from event proceeds. Over the past 21 years, the Presidents Cup has impacted more than 450 charities in 15 countries worldwide and 35 states in the U.S. The 2017 Presidents Cup will be played at Liberty National GC, New Jersey, Sept 26-Oct 1.
