In the early hours of this morning Beijing time, the PGA Tour announced that Melbourne, Australia, has won the right to host the 2028 and 2040 Presidents Cup.
This means that Australia's second-largest city will host the biennial match between the international team and the United States for the fourth and fifth time since 1998, 2011 and 2019, thus becoming the most hosted city in Gainesville, Virginia, USA.
Although the specific stadium has not yet been announced, the first three visits to Melbourne of the President's Cup were held at Royal Melbourne, australia's number one of the world's top 100 courses. The only victory international team won in the 13th president's cup history was in Melbourne in 1998; but in the last two tournaments held here, the United States team has successfully defended the title under the leadership of captain Fred Cabos and Tiger Woods.
In 2019, Woods led the U.S. team to complete eight consecutive championships in Melbourne
Founded in 1994, the Presidents Cup is a biennial tournament between 12 stars from the U.S. team and an international team of 12 stars from the rest of the world except Europe. The format of the Presidents Cup is similar to that of the Ryder Cup, but the schedule is longer than one day, divided into 4 days.
In addition to the first two tournaments held in the United States, the Presidents Cup has set the "home" of the international team in different countries around the world since 1998. In addition to the three editions of Melbourne, Australia, the Presidents Cup has been held in South Africa (2003), Canada (2007) and South Korea (2015).
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Presidents Cup, which was scheduled for 2021, has been postponed by a year, and this year's 14th edition will be held September 22-25 at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the U.S. team. Davis Ralph III and former Masters winner Trevor Immelman from South Africa will captain the U.S. and national teams, respectively.
Rav III and Immelmann will captain both sides this year
After this year's tournament, the next edition – the 2024 Presidents Cup course – will be hosted by royal Montreal golf clubs in Canada since 2007.
Since the Presidents Cup is held biennially in the United States and other countries, this means that the "home" of each international team needs to be at least 4 years apart. With Canada in 2024 and Australia in 2028, other countries in the world want to hold the President's Cup, at the earliest, until 2032!
That is to say, China, if it wants to become the home of the President's Cup of Golf, will have to wait at least a decade.
President's Cup "China's Three Questions"
In July 1910, the person who organized the first National Games put forward the famous three questions in the article "The Precursor of the Chinese Sports Congress" in the "Declaration".
"When will China be able to send representatives to the Congress of the Nations Movement?"
"When will I win the championship at the Universal Movement Congress?"
"When will the Congress of the Movement of Nations be held in Middle-earth?"
The famous "Olympic Three Questions"
These three questions became the famous "Three Questions of the Olympic Games" that became well-known in Chinese, that is, "When will China send athletes to participate in the Olympic Games?" When will China win the Olympic gold medal? When will China host the Olympics? ”
Since then, China's Olympic dream has begun to sprout, and generations of Chinese athletes have written the Chinese history of the international Olympic cause with hard work and hard work. With the successful holding of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and this year, the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, the Chinese nation has finally handed in a 100% answer to the "Three Olympic Questions"!
Beijing becomes the only "double Olympic city" in history
In the field of golf, the highest level of team honor that Chinese can participate in is the biennial Presidents Cup! If the three questions of the "Declaration" of the year are applied to it, they will become -
"When will China send players to the Presidents Cup?"
"When will Chinese win the Presidents Cup for Team International?"
"When will China be able to host the President's Cup?"
Among them, the first question, we have already given the answer - in 2019, Li Haotong passed the ranking of 6th of the 8 seats in the international team selection standings, relying on his hard strength, becoming the first Chinese mainland player in the history of the 25 years since the establishment of the President's Cup!
Li Haotong became the first person in China in the President's Cup
As for the "second question", it has not been done so far. Unlike the Ryder Cup glued in Europe and the United States, the Presidents Cup has shown a one-sided trend for many years, so far the United States team has won the championship for 8 consecutive years, and it is very likely that this year's home, with the momentum of last year's Ryder Cup victory, staged a "9 consecutive championships" hegemony.
However, if you look at the last tournament, the international team led the United States team for the first three days, and finally lost by only 2 points, and the last group of the 2015 individual competition suffered a counterattack, the international team is not without the possibility of winning. Especially when sitting at home, stars from Asia, Africa, Australia, Central and South America can often play at a super high level, and have the potential to one day beat the United States team.
With Yuan Yichun's promotion to the PGA Tour, Wu Ashun's four-time crown on the DP World Tour, Li Haotong's occasional appearance on the international stage, and the gradual rise of a new generation of young Chinese players... Chinese to be selected for the international team again, and even help the team win the President's Cup, is not an unattainable dream - in other words, for the "second question" of the President's Cup, Chinese golf athletes have the strength and hope to give a strong answer in the foreseeable future!
Yuan Yechun Wu Ah Shun joined hands with the Tokyo Olympics
However, for the "third question", the biggest difficulty faced by Chinese is not selection and opportunity, but time.
The Presidents Cup was once infinitely close to China
Some people may ask, is it really necessary for China to hold the President's Cup?
In fact, more than a decade ago, this was originally a vision that was very likely to come true. Feasibility, even earlier than the first two questions of "whether Chinese can be selected" and "whether Chinese can win the cup", may become a reality earlier!
Unlike the Ryder Cup, which is hosted by the European Tour and the U.S. PGA, the Presidents Cup is a team tournament created by the PGA Tour. The PGA TOUR has 100% dominance of the event. As early as 2009, tim Finchen, then president of the PGA Tour, had made plans to bring the President's Cup to China within a decade and help China promote the development of golf.
Finson has teamed up with the China Higher Education Association to create the PGA Tour china tournament
"We all agreed to spend a year and a half looking at the professional players to do an investigation into whether China might hold the Presidents Cup in ten years." Fenchen said at the time, "The President's Cup will be China's goal to train golfers, because 2020 is the Olympic Games, and the President's Cup can help China establish a lineup of players participating in the Olympic Games." ”
In 2011, when the 9th Presidents Cup was held in Melbourne, Zhang Xiaoning, vice chairman and secretary general of the China Senior High School Association, was invited by the PGA Tour to lead a delegation of China's golf industry composed of Mission Hills Executive Director Zhu Dingyao, Oriental Golf Group President Pan Zhongguang and Nanshan Group Chairman Song Jianmin to observe the game.
In an interview with the media at that time, Zhang Xiaoning expressed his appreciation for the organization and scale of the President's Cup, and regretted that the international team did not yet have a representative of Chinese players. Zhang Xiaoning also revealed that the China Higher Education Association is actively bidding for the President's Cup and hopes to hold it before 2019.
Zhang Xiaoning (third from right) led industry representatives to observe the 2011 Presidents Cup
"At the opening ceremony, when the national flag of the contestants was raised and the national anthem was played, how I wished that the Chinese flag would be raised at that moment, so I was deeply touched." Zhang Xiaoning said, "I hope that one day we can also hold such a competition!" ”
"China's stadium, atmosphere and organizational ability are all the conditions for holding competitions, but we don't have a sufficient number of world-class players, whether we can hold the President's Cup, it is very important that we have no players in the team." He said at the time, "The PGA Tour said that 2019 can be considered in China, but we think the time is too far away, we hope to introduce the President's Cup to China as soon as possible, of course, we have to do our own work, such a big game, if there is no Chinese players to participate, it is also a pity." ”
In the following years, the "honeymoon period" of cooperation between the China Golf Association and the PGA Tour was ushered in - in 2014, the PGA Tour China Tournament was established, and within a few years, it trained Many Chinese mainland players such as Li Haotong, Zhang Xinjun, Dou Zecheng, Yuan Yichun and so on who rose from the PGA Tour to the Guanghui International Tour, and even further into the international higher stage arena.
However, almost at the same time, the state increased its efforts to rectify the golf industry, and the operation and investment environment of domestic golf began to deteriorate day by day. One after another international-level golf tournaments held in China have either withdrawn one after another or struggled to maintain. Against a difficult backdrop, it seems increasingly slim for China to find a stadium suitable for daring to "go out" and host such a high-level world competition as the President's Cup.
Dou Zecheng Zhang Xinjun joined hands to land on the PGA Tour
Nevertheless, with the 2017 Presidents Cup, which coincided with dou Zecheng and Zhang Xinjun's appearance in the new season as China's first PGA Tour full members, the PGA TOUR still did not give up its hope of granting the presidency to China.
"If you look at the history of the Presidents Cup, we've held it once each in South Africa, Canada, South Korea, and twice in Australia, you ask me why I went to those countries? Players from those countries have a very high level. Jay Monaghan, who had just become the new PGA Tour president at the time, said, "Now, Zhang Xinjun and Dou Zecheng have entered the PGA Tour, proving that China has such potential." ”
At this time, the 2019 Presidential Cup, which was originally "planned" to be held by China, has been confirmed to be held in Australia. However, Monaghan still hinted at the time that the PGA Tour was considering the Chinese market and whether it was possible to host the Presidents Cup after 2023.
Monaghan and Trump attended the 2017 Presidents Cup
"In 2023 (when the Presidents Cup was not postponed due to the epidemic, it was actually 2024), we will move from the United States to the international, and we will determine the host countries for 2023 and 2027 later." But there is flexibility in the Presidents Cup. That's why we're investing in China, investing in the PGA Tour China, because that's going to drive golf and drive the growth of this market. Make it possible. ”
However, at this time, the relationship between the PGA TOUR and the China High School Association, with the "separation" of the PGA TOUR China and the China Tour, in the same market, has begun to become subtle and unpredictable... With the epidemic beginning to sweep the world in 2020, the PGA TOUR China has fallen into a standstill, and the development of the PGA Tour in the Chinese market has almost come to a standstill – whether it is a good time and place, or a person, the behind-the-scenes driving force of the President's Cup in China seems to have been difficult to sustain.
And with today, the Presidents Cup revealed the home of the international team in 2028, and the possibility of China hosting this game has been pushed to at least a decade later.
Presidents Cup International Team logo display
But the only "positive" is that, at the very least, the two Presidents' Cups, 2032 and 2036, have yet to be announced. Historically, Asia is bound to be the home field candidate for international teams outside of Australia and Canada — and perhaps, the PGA Tour, a "window of time" for the world's most populous country.
President's Cup Three, when will Chinese give a complete answer? Believe in time, will witness everything.
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