Golf fans STUNNED how one player has been overlooked at the Presidents Cup
Nobody can quite believe how Ryan Fox has been left out of Trevor Immelman's International Presidents Cup team.
While the majority of golf fans consider the 2022 Presidents Cup this month is already over before it has started, there is a sense of shock from many that one particular player in the World's Top 50 has been overlooked in Trevor Immelman's International side.
Immelman made his six captain's picks for the Presidents Cup last week and incredibly, despite a win and seven top-10 finishes (five of which were in the top three) on the DP World Tour in 2022, New Zealand's Ryan Fox was left on the sidelines.
Mondays @bmwpga #rolexseries #foxtracker pic.twitter.com/kOF3YBnNue
— Ryan Fox (@ryanfoxgolfer) September 5, 2022
The South African decided to pick Si Woo Kim, Cameron Davis, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Taylor Pendrith, KH Lee and Sebastian Munoz.
They will now join automatic qualifiers Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Mito Pereira, Corey Conners and Tom Kim.
A number of golf fans were left stunned by Immelman's decision to bypass Fox, who has enjoyed his greatest season to date at the age of 35 years old.
Fox, who won in Ras Al Khaimah earlier this season, is even ranked higher in the OWGR than half of Immelman's 12-man team at 48th in the world.
Many consider Fox's supreme driving distance and ability to make birdies for fun would have been a huge asset for the International team in the match play format.
Here's a look at some of the tweets, one of which was from fellow DP World Tour pro Richard Mansell:
Shocked to see Ryan Fox not get a pick for the #PresidentsCup
Absolute baller
— RICHARD MANSELL (@richardmansel14) September 7, 2022
Struggling to understand the captains picks for Presidents Cup. Ryan Fox world ranking is 67 positions higher than Pendrith & that doesn’t happen by accident. He must be fuming.
— Michael Goldstein (@MP_Goldstein) September 7, 2022
I’m not sure who you leave off, but would’ve liked to have seen Ryan Fox on the squad. Great course fit and some assorted big dick performances this season in national opens and the Masters (of Europe and Catalunya). pic.twitter.com/43wPMCpDlw
— Tron Carter (@TronCarterNLU) September 6, 2022
Ryan Fox highest ranked international player on European Tour not selected for Presidents Cup. Please advise @TrevorImmelman @PresidentsCup
— Graham Leary (@GrahamLearyA) September 6, 2022
So disappointing not to see Ryan Fox in here. Deserved his shot. https://t.co/60Pu9xLhtP
— Guy Heveldt (@GuyHeveldt) September 6, 2022
WHERE IS RYAN FOX???
— MokDers (@Maciej66904182) September 6, 2022
No Ryan Fox in the President's Cup team. You have to be joking. Well that means I've just freed up some extra time by no longer following their progress. Obvious bias at work. #clueless #RyanRobbed @ryanfoxgolfer you deserved better mate!
— Steven Stowers (@StevenStowers) September 7, 2022
Disappointed not to have seen Ryan Fox picked with his current form https://t.co/j8LjLLSYCq
— Alan Cooper (@Coops888) September 7, 2022
Why no Ryan Fox?? @IntlTeam
— Michael Farley (@michaelfarleyza) September 7, 2022
Where on earth is Lucas Herbert? Or Ryan Fox? Both ranked higher than almost all of these guys and in decent form
— Nick Bell (@nick_bell7) September 6, 2022
Wow I muted the Russian guy who asked who Ryan Fox was and it muted some humpty saying DPWT was meaningless. Golf Twitter huh.
Well at least us Kiwis and Aussies can shout "should've picked Fox and Herbert" after the Internationals get thumped— Kiwi golfer (@Kiwigolfer65) September 7, 2022
Not even as the new Zealander I am:
Ryan Fox should definitely be on the @IntlTeam for The Presidents Cup.
I give the dp tour plenty of shit but Ryan has been playing lights out golf & the elites that run shit ignored that for social media hits.
— Fatso (@FatsoShack) September 10, 2022
Despite the obvious disappointment in missing out on a Presidents Cup debut later this month, Fox told Golf Digest that he has "been a little off recently" and that is ultimately why he has not made the team.
"The PGA Tour had a lot of big events in the run-up to the team selection but I had front-loaded my schedule and played a lot of golf until the Open Championship," said Fox, who is ranked 48th in the Official World Golf Rankings, which is higher than half of the players in Immelman's team.
"I haven't played a lot since then, on top of missing the cut in a couple of big events. That probably hurt me a lot.
"Plus, the event itself is pretty PGA Tour-centric. I completely understand that.
"While I'm disappointed, I can see what Trevor was thinking."
Fox was forced to withdraw from the BMW PGA Championship last week due to sustaining a knee injury.
Sergio Garcia also withdrew from the tournament after the first round, only he gave no reason for walking out of Wentworth and was then seen attending a college football game less than 24 hours later.
Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann certainly made a sizeable dent in the plans of International captain Trevor Immelman by moving to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour.
Both players had been confirmed on the rest of the world's side before their removal as a result of the PGA Tour running the Presidents Cup.
Smith would've no doubt been the star player for the International team having just won his maiden major title at The 150th Open Championship, impressively chasing down Rory McIlroy to lift the Claret Jug at St Andrews.
LIV Golf commissioner Greg Norman also recently acquired Marc Leishman and Anirban Lahiri, two players who would have also bolstered the International team.
Immelman last month told how all the LIV Golf transfer speculation had proven a "giant pain in the ass" to his team's preparations.
United States captain Davis Love III may have lost a few players to LIV Golf such as Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, but on paper at least, his team still features many of the world's best players and they will likely take some beating once again.
Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau made the team automatically, and then Love added Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Kevin Kisner, Cameron Young, Billy Horschel and Max Homa.
The United States are heavy 1/5 favourites to land a 12th win in 14 matches in Presidents Cup history when the match gets underway at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte from September 22 to 25.
The Internationals have only ever won the biennial contest once, coming in 1998.
The teams shared the prize in 2003 when Tiger Woods and Ernie Els could not be separated in a playoff before darkness.
