What to know about this week’s Presidents Cup at Medinah, including who’s on the teams and how it’s scored

The best men’s golfers from the United States and the rest of the world — minus Europe — are in Chicago’s northwest suburbs this week for the 16th Presidents Cup matches at Medinah Country Club.

Here’s what you need to know before the event gets underway.

What is it?

The Presidents Cup is a biennial team match-play event between the U.S. and the International team, which consists of golfers from anywhere outside of the U.S. or Europe. Each team has 12 players with a mix of automatic qualifiers and captain’s picks.

The matches were first played in 1994 and are played in alternating years with the biennial Ryder Cup between the U.S. and Europe. (The schedules for both were pushed back a year by first the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and then the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.)

The U.S. hosts every four years, with the first four domestic Presidents Cups played at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia and subsequent versions at Harding Park in San Francisco, Muirfield Village in Ohio, Liberty National in New Jersey and Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C. The International team has hosted in Australia, South Africa, Canada and South Korea.

Who leads the series?

Unlike the Ryder Cup — in which Europe has won 11 of the last 15 since 1995 — the U.S. has dominated the Presidents Cup with a 13-1-1 record. The Americans have won the last 10 editions and never have lost on home soil.

The lone International victory came in 1998 at Royal Melbourne in Australia, the first time the matches were played overseas. The teams tied in 2003 at Fancourt in South Africa when a sudden-death playoff between Tiger Woods and Ernie Els was called because of darkness after three halved holes.

What’s the format?

Similar to the Ryder Cup, the teams compete in two-man partner matches — both “foursomes” (alternate shot) and “fourball” (best ball) — until a final day of singles competition. Unlike the Ryder Cup, the matches are spread across four days instead of three.

Each match is worth one point. With 30 total matches — nine foursomes, nine fourball and 12 singles — a team needs 15½ points to win the cup. (One key difference from the Ryder Cup, in which the team holding the cup retains it in the event of a tie: A 15-15 finish in the Presidents Cup means the teams share the cup.) All matches are completed even after the cup is clinched.

Scoring in match play is determined by holes won, rather than total strokes played. Once a team or player is ahead by more holes than the number of holes remaining, that side has won and the match is over. There are no extra holes; if a match is all square through 18 holes, each side earns a half-point.

In foursomes, one partner tees off on all odd-numbered holes and his teammate tees off on the even-numbered holes. Then they alternate shots until the hole is over. In fourball, both players on each side play their own ball, and the lower score from each side is counted.

What’s the schedule?

Brandt Snedeker, as captain of the host team, gets to choose the format order. He announced earlier this month that Day 1 would have five fourball matches, meaning Day 2 will have five foursomes matches. Day 3 will consist of four foursomes and four fourball matches, with Snedeker determining the order. All 12 players on each side compete in singles on the final day.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Who are the captains?

U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker, 45, is the winner of 14 professional tournaments worldwide, including 10 on the PGA Tour. He won the 2012 Tour Championship and shot a 59 en route to winning the 2018 Wyndham Championship.

Known in his prime as one of the game’s best putters, Snedeker played on two Ryder Cup teams and one Presidents Cup team. He had nine top-10 finishes in majors from 2008 to 2017 with a best finish of tied for third in the 2008 Masters and 2012 British Open. The native of Nashville, Tenn., played college golf at Vanderbilt.

Snedeker’s assistant captains are Keegan Bradley, Jim Furyk, Webb Simpson and Gary Woodland.

International captain Geoff Ogilvy, 49, won the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot — memorable for Phil Mickelson’s 72nd-hole meltdown in which he needed a par to win and made a double bogey. That was one of 12 professional wins for Ogilvy, including eight on the PGA Tour. He’s a two-time winner of the WGC Match Play Championship and he played in three Presidents Cups.

A native of Adelaide, Australia, Ogilvy founded a golf course architecture firm with Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead called OCM Golf. One of their clients is Medinah, where OCM renovated the No. 3 course that will be used for the Presidents Cup.

Ogilvy’s assistant captains are Tim Clark, Trevor Immelman, Taylor Pendrith and Camilo Villegas.

Who’s on the U.S. team?

The top six in FedEx Cup points earned from Jan. 1, 2025, through Aug. 23, 2026, received automatic berths. Snedeker made six captain’s picks (c).

Scottie Scheffler

Cameron Young

Wyndham Clark

Sam Burns

Russell Henley

Collin Morikawa

Jacob Bridgeman (c)

Patrick Cantlay (c)

Chris Gotterup (c)

Jackson Koivun (c)

Xander Schauffele (c)

Justin Thomas (c)

Who’s on the International team?

The top six eligible players in the world rankings on Aug. 31 received automatic berths. Ogilvy made six captain’s picks (c).

Si Woo Kim

Ryan Fox

Hideki Matsuyama

Min Woo Lee

Tom Kim

Adam Scott

Christiaan Bezuidenhout (c)

Corey Conners (c)

Nico Echavarria (c)

Ryo Hisatsune (c)

Sungjae Im (c)

Nick Taylor (c)

Will President Trump attend?

As is tradition for the host country’s sitting leader, U.S. President Donald Trump is the honorary chairman of the Presidents Cup, and he posted on social media last month that he will attend the matches.

“This will be a particularly exciting event,” Trump posted. “Both teams are ‘loaded’ with Talent. I look forward to being there, and greeting all of these fantastic athletes, on both teams. See you in Chicago!”

Trump didn’t say which day or days he would attend; when he was the honorary chairman in 2017 at Liberty National, he attended on the final day and presented the cup to the victorious U.S. team — the first sitting U.S. president to do so. Bill Clinton in 1996 was the only other sitting U.S. president to attend a Presidents Cup, according to ESPN.

Last year Trump attended on the first day of the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black on Long Island.

Other major events at Medinah