Following the shocking selection of Keegan Bradley as the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, a more predictable succession plan for the U.S. Presidents Cup team was unveiled Tuesday with the PGA Tour naming Brandt Snedeker as captain for the 2026 American squad that will compete at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago. Meanwhile, the long-suffering International Team has turned to Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy, a four-time assistant captain whose course design firm OCM was responsible for the two-year renovation at Medinah no. 3 before the course reopened last summer.
At 44, Snedeker is a relatively recent addition to the U.S. captaincy pipeline—he was an assistant under Jim Furyk at Royal Montreal for the last Presidents Cup, and will be one of Keegan Bradley's vice captains at Bethpage this fall. His playing résumé boasts nine PGA Tour wins, including the 2012 Tour Championship, but only one appearance playing for the U.S. Presidents Cup team, when he went 2-3-0 at Muirfield Village in 2013. He also played in two Ryder Cups—the Americans’ 2012 loss at Medinah and the 2016 victory at Hazeltine—going 4-2-0 over the two events.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be named U.S. team captain for the 2026 Presidents Cup by my peers," Snedeker said in a press release, "and I’m looking forward to leading our guys into Medinah for what will certainly be an amazing week of golf."
“Brandt Snedeker is among the game’s most respected players and one who has garnered the utmost admiration from his peers throughout his 21-year career, which was most recently recognized as he received the 2024 Payne Stewart Award for his outstanding character and sportsmanship,” added PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. “I know he will be a tremendous captain and asset for the U.S. Team in 2026.”
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Ogilvy, 47, has been groomed for the International captaincy for longer than Snedeker, serving his first assistant captaincy at Liberty National in 2017. That followed his playing career in the Presidents Cup, when in three appearances he posted a 7-6-1 record—more impressive than it looks, considering the Internationals lost all three. Ogilvy has eight PGA Tour wins to his name, the capstone of which was his 2006 U.S. Open victory at Winged Foot. He's also won two of the "Australian majors," capturing both the Australian Open and Australian PGA.
“Since Ernie Els debuted the shield in 2019, the International Team’s spirit has intensified and grown as we have rallied around this symbol, which embodies our shared ambition and unifies both players and fans," Ogilvy said. "I intend to carry that momentum forward, just as the captains before me have, to build strong support for our international players in the lead up and throughout the event.”
Ogilvy will have some intimate knowledge of the course this time around, considering the work OCM did in renovating the No. 3 course at Medinah—a renovation that includes larger greens and an entirely new routing—but he'll still have his work cut out for him. Although two of the last three Cups hosted on International soil were relatively close, it has been a history of lopsided wins for the Americans when they play at home, dating back to the second Presidents Cup, when the Americans won by just a single point in 1996. In all, the Americans have won the last 10 Cups, and hold a 13-1-1 all-time lead.