The 2019 Presidents Cup will feature a captain's duel of Tiger Woods for the United States leading a 12-man American side against Ernie Els' International dozen at Royal Melbourne in Australia.
That December matchup in the biennial series will feature a pair of rules changes designed to ease depth concerns for the Internationals and allow them to more easily pick hot hands to make up the team.
In 2019, both the American and International teams will have eight automatic qualifiers identified after the 2019 Tour Championship, with eight players coming from the US points list and eight International players coming from the Official World Golf Ranking. The captains will then each pick four wild-card players to join their respective teams at a date to be determined ahead of the matches.
During the week of the event, each player will be required to play a minimum of one match prior to the final-round singles matches on Sunday. In the past, a player had to appear in a minimum of two matches in the four two-man sessions prior to the Sunday singles slate. This will allow Els to bench colder players for an additional match, if needed, and send out hotter players without having to worry about as stringent a participation rule.
There will continue to be 30 matches, with a five-match session of foursomes or fourball on Thursday, a five-match session of the opposite format on Friday, two four-match sessions featuring each format separately on Saturday, concluding with 12 singles matches on Sunday. Matches in the first four sessions can end in a tie, awarding a half-point to each team, and Sunday singles matches go extra holes beyond an 18-hole tie to determine the winner of a full point.
