Presidents Cup returning to Melbourne in 2019

By Peter Rutherford

INCHEON, South Korea (Reuters) – Melbourne will host the 2019 edition of the Presidents Cup, as well as next year’s World Cup of Golf, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem announced on Saturday.

The biennial Presidents Cup, which pits the United States against a team of International golfers minus Europeans, returns to American soil in 2017 at Liberty National in New Jersey before moving to Melbourne two years later.

“The state of Victoria in Australia will serve as the host for the World Cup in 2016 and the Presidents Cup in 2019,” Finchem said at a news conference.

“The venue for both events will be at one of the very many Melbourne premier golf courses in the sandbelt region. And we will be announcing a date in a few weeks.

“Both events will be in the November time frame as we have historically played these events in Australia.”

The Presidents Cup has been played twice in Australia, both times at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club, with the Internationals recording their only win in the event there in 1998.

The United States got their revenge at the course in 2011.

World number two Jason Day said he was delighted the event would be played in his homeland in four years’ time.

“Whether we play at Royal Melbourne or some other golf course, I just like playing that sort of golf, and being back in front of the home crowd will be fantastic,” said Day, one of the four Australians competing at the 11th edition in South Korea.

Finchem said in a statement that the Presidents Cup had broken new ground this year by coming to Asia for the first time and that the response, not to mention the support from Korean President Park Geun-hye, had been “fantastic”.

“It will spur the understanding that Korea can put on big-time golf events,” he said. “We’ve had a very positive reaction from representatives in other Asian countries this week about President Park’s involvement and what that means and the message it conveys, and what’s great about golf.

“So it was new territory and it’s worked out well. And Australia is different. Australia, we know the event, we know the events can be great from a presentation standpoint, there isn’t any question; we’ve been there before.”

(Reporting by Peter Rutherford; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)