Presidents Cup 2026: Your Vibes-Only guide to the top 24 players at Medinah

Ladies and gentlemen, this is unprecedented: An individual vibes ranking of a team golf event??? Is that even allowed???

You better believe it, pops: Vibesmen like me are the rebels of golf, and the usual rules don't apply. For those of you who are new to the scene, the Vibes Guide is a gut-check ranking of golfers based not on data or inside information or any kind of analysis, but purely on the true north of rash, unconsidered instinct. The numbers geeks hate us, not only because we refute the entire basis of their "science," but because we're (basically) (almost) always right. The track record:

Masters 2025: Successfully picked Rory (at No. 41)
PGA Championship 2025: Successfully picked Scottie Scheffler (at No. 1)
U.S. Open 2025: Forgot to do one, would've definitely had Spaun at No. 1
Open Championship 2025: Successfully picked Scottie again (at No. 4)
Masters 2026: Successfully picked Rory again (No. 29)
PGA Championship 2026: The tragedy of Aaron Rai
U.S. Open 2026: Wyndham Clark all day every day (No. 1)
Open Championship 2026: The tragedy of Ryan Fox

Now, by popular demand, we're bringing the act to the Presidents Cup at Medinah Country Club. What follows is a list of all 24 players, complete with good vibes and bad vibes, ranked from last to first.

24: Corey Conners

Good Vibes: [Thinking for six hours] Uhhh … Chicago's kinda close to Canada?

Bad Vibes: About as bad a team match-play golfer as any team has produced this millennium. The 2-7-0 Presidents Cup record doesn't tell the entire story of a lifetime of missing short putts, and he was a particular letdown in 2024 in Montreal on Saturday when his team needed him the most. I respect the career he's forged, but he's not cut out for match play.

Will He Even Win a Point?: If he does, it'll be a garbage time singles point against Jacob Bridgeman when the U.S. is already up 35-2.

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23: Christiaan Bezuidenhout

Good Vibes: Extremely happy to be here. Also, he's 3-1-1 in his Presidents Cup career, and it's not very easy to find International players with a winning record.

Bad Vibes: On the Golf Channel Presidents Cup selection show, when his name was announced, the graphic said "Two top-10s in PGA Tour events in 2026." And that was them trying to pump the guy up! I like Bezuidenhout quite a bit, and hope he'll rise again, but the man could lose his tour card this fall if he's not careful. The fact that he's on the International Team in 2026 is very bad news for the International Team in 2026.

Will He Even Win a Point?: No. When he asked for directions to Medinah, Geoff Ogilvy told him they were playing at the one in Saudi Arabia.

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22: Nick Taylor

Good Vibes: Has been a very good clutch putter when he's in contention, and has Canada's most memorable stroke-play moment since Mike Weir won the Masters.

Bad Vibes: Want to hear a depressing stat? Aside from Weir, who put together a solid 13-9-2 Presidents Cup playing career before a fairly bad captaincy in 2024, the other five Canadians who have played are 9-21-3. I believe this is the main reason Trump chose not to annex Canada earlier this year.

Will He Even Win a Point?: I think he'll fare exactly as well against the Americans as the Canadian men's and women's hockey teams did at the Olympics.

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21: Adam Scott

Good Vibes: Playing in his 12th straight Presidents Cup at age 46, which ties Phil Mickelson for the overall record. But he wins the tiebreaker because he's way more handsome and classy than Mickelson.

Bad Vibes: Went 3-2 in his first Cup and helped the Internationals get a tie against the Americans. Since then, has gone 17-26-6 and lost all 10. Still very handsome, though.

Will He Even Win a Point?: No. Fair or not, he's the public face of International Team failure over the last 20 years, and they needed him to be Ian Poulter on steroids. (Even that probably wouldn't have been enough.) Instead, he was cast into a role he wasn't quite suited for, and the predictable results have followed. You get the sense Scott would have been a killer if he played for Team Europe in the Ryder Cup, a sort of quieter Justin Rose type, but team golf fate had a different idea. Like being drafted by the New York Jets.

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20: Ryo Hisatsune

Good Vibes: Almost didn't miss the cut at the Biltmore Championship last week.

Bad Vibes: We don't know enough about him to come up with a bad vibe, which is good, but unfortunately that's a bad vibe in and of itself. A classic snake-eating-its-tail-bad-vibe situation.

Will He Even Win a Point?: I'll be honest with you all: This International team is pretty underwhelming, and I'm running out of things to say already. This may be the most dispiriting vibes guide ever. I'm regretting so much.

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19: Nico Echavarria

Good Vibes: Needed a complete Shane Lowry meltdown to win the Cognizant this year, but it was a good reminder that high-level Latin American golf still exists outside of a few guys on LIV.

Bad Vibes: Don't look up his time at the University of Arkansas.

Will He Even Win a Point?: I don't know, but he should start going by the nickname "Medellin," his home town, because it sounded badass on Benicio Del Toro's character in “Sicario.”

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18: Min Woo Lee

Good Vibes: [halfheartedly mumbles something about a chef]

Bad Vibes: [more chef-related mumbles]

Will He Even Win a Point?: At this point I am genuinely refreshing GolfDigest.com every 15 seconds, praying the Presidents Cup gets canceled so I don't have to finish this article.

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17: Hideki Matsuyama

Good Vibes: Dunno.

Bad Vibes: Dunno.

Will He Even Win a Point?: You can't hit me with Hideki, a complete cipher, when I'm already running on fumes. I'm dying to profile an American right now, but vibes integrity dictates that I must press on with the true rankings.

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16: Sungjae Im

Good Vibes: Only 28, despite the fact that it seems like he's been on the PGA Tour since roughly 1987. Played well in the FEC playoffs!

Bad Vibes: His Wikipedia picture makes it look like he just saw a clown get run over by a truck, and isn't sure whether or not he should laugh.

Will He Even Win a Point?: He's actually in good form, and one thing that's clear is that if the International Team has even a faint prayer, the Koreans are going to have to save them. But at the same time, the Koreans (by which I mean the Korean men) never really seem to win very much. Y.E. Yang ain't walking through that door!

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15: Tom Kim

Good Vibes: Even if he doesn't play well, he'll probably do something funny, like that time he ripped the butt of his pants twice in Charlotte.

Bad Vibes: If he taunts Scottie again like he did in Montreal, he might actually get murdered on the course.

Will He Even Win a Point?: Yes. He's one of the few guys on the International side in half-decent form, and he always brings the fun in the Presidents Cup. I predict he wins both Thursday and Friday, then gets disemboweled by Scottie on the seventh hole Saturday morning.

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14: Si Woo Kim

Good Vibes: The nighty-night celebration in Montreal was the second-funniest moment in modern Presidents Cup history, just trailing Keegan Bradley's declaration later that week that they were going to kick the European Ryder Cup team's ass at Bethpage.

Bad Vibes: The nighty-night celebration was also a perfect symbol of international futility—a gesture meant to be used for a game-clinching play, but in this case deployed way too early in a match Kim would go on to lose.

Will He Even Win a Point?: Kim is the only International player inside the OWGR top 20, which means they need him badly. And when the Internationals need something badly, you can bet on one thing: they aren't going to get it.

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13: Ryan Fox

Good Vibes: Most recent major winner, pride of New Zealand, consummate athlete, feels tougher than your average international. Probably the only guy on the International team who could beat me up, but would beat me up badly.

Bad Vibes: The 2½ points he earns might be all the Internationals get.

Will He Even Win a Point?: Probably. But I imagine he'll spend most of the Presidents Cup asking his wife to text him pictures of the claret jug as a reminder that golf can be fun.

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12: Scottie Scheffler

Good Vibes: Technically the best golfer of the last 20 years.

Bad Vibes: Suffering serious "Tiger Syndrome" at the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, where his pairs record is now 4-9-3. Bits aside, it's genuinely embarrassing that the Americans haven't found a way to set Scottie up to win pairs matches. If this doesn't represent institutional failure, I don't know what does.

Will He Even Win a Point?: A fun game to play is "which relative no-name will beat Scottie multiple times this week?" My money's on South Africa's Jayden Schaper, and no, I don't care that he's not on the team.

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11: Russell Henley

Good Vibes: Coming off another excellent, super-consistent year, and another win at Colonial. World top 10. The ultimate late bloomer.

Bad Vibes: Leaves a little something to be desired in team match play, and had a distinctly rough Ryder Cup, losing twice with Scottie and then giving up the winning half point to Lowry.

Will He Even Win a Point?: The most interesting part of the Presidents Cup is who they'll pair Scottie with, and while going back to the Henley well isn't necessarily a tragic choice, I do think it'll be an indication that they're out of ideas. Who's left for Henley, though, if not Scottie? Maybe Bridgeman?

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10: Collin Morikawa

Good Vibes: Still extant.

Bad Vibes: It feels relevant that upon looking at his OWGR, I had absolutely no memory of him winning Pebble Beach. Am I being gaslit?

Will He Even Win a Point?: Probably. And even if not, I'll look at his match-play record before Adare Manor and it will say that he went 5-0.

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9: Sam Burns

Good Vibes: Look. Look. His golf is really good right now.

Bad Vibes: It's a tough time to be Sam Burns at the Presidents Cup. He was so good this year, but the two lasting memories will be falling short at the U.S. Open (when he played well on Sunday) and then doing the same at the Open (when he avowedly did not play well). It sounds weird to say he hasn't been a good match-play golfer, because he actually won the WGC-Match Play and he's a great putter, but his record in team events is very average, and the Scottie friendship pairing never panned out.

Will He Even Win a Point?: I can see him being the one American who doesn't win a point to cap off the worst great year ever. (Or is it the best awful year?)

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8: Wyndham Clark

Good Vibes: Chicago is now THE WYNDY CITY. I guarantee someone will make this pun if he does anything remotely good.

Bad Vibes: Hopefully Chicago—with its famously warm and supportive fan culture—likes him better than New York did.

Will He Even Win a Point?: Wyndham is all a'swagger now, so he should be ready to roll, it's just a matter of finding the right partner and rhythm. Interestingly, the only guy he's played with in past Cups who is on the current team is Cantlay (he was his partner in the famous Joe LaCava match in Rome), so maybe they'll reprise the pairing, or maybe we'll get a total curveball. Or maybe he'll turn the entire crowd into International fans.

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7: Jacob Bridgeman

Good Vibes: One of only two Americans to play a warm-up event in Asheville last week, and guess what? The madman won the damn thing. If there was any controversy about Snedeker using a pick on him, that pretty much put it to bed.

Bad Vibes: I'm not quite ready to accept that he's a distinct human being, rather than one part of a human mash-up that also includes Max Greyserman, Austin Smotherman, and Ben Silverman. This could be a hard weekend for me.

Will He Even Win a Point?: If the U.S. wins 30-0, it follows that he'll win at least one point.

RELATED: This Presidents Cup rookie carries momentum to medinah—and a reputation to uphold

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6: Chris Gotterup

Good Vibes: The big fella! I just know this guy is going to kick ass in team match play. I have never been more certain of anything in my life.

Bad Vibes: Nothing at all. Wins when he should win, hits the ball a mile, comes from New Jersey, has promised me $100,000 if he wins four points. (I'm testing my hypothesis that if you say three true things, the fourth also comes true.)

Will He Even Win a Point?: Oh hell yes. He's going to leave the Internationals trembling. He should hit a driver off a par-3 just to fill them with fear.

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5: Cameron Young

Good Vibes: He was exactly the badass you thought he'd be at Bethpage, and should have been playing in the opening session. I dream of a Chris Gotterup northeast tri-state area pairing.

Bad Vibes: Sorta/kinda cooled off from his springtime apex. Also, not sure if I can remember ever hearing him speak.

Will He Even Win a Point?: He'll win every point. Worst-case scenario is a tied match, and that's only if he breaks one or both arms before the turn.

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4: Xander Schauffele

Good Vibes: Ole Xandy has started to show some serious form again, and he's a stone-cold killer at the Presidents Cup, with a 10-4 record including a massive comeback singles win against Adam Scott in 2019. The Internationals have to look like lambs to the slaughter for him right now.

Bad Vibes: Has maybe lost an ounce of the swaggering alpha status he claimed back in 2024 with his two majors. Big chance to get it all back here.

Will He Even Win a Point?: Minimum three. Maximum 19.

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3: Patrick Cantlay

Good Vibes: Cantlay is exactly the kind of guy you want for this Presidents Cup, where not only does he have a track record of winning, but you get the sense he'll take a kind of sadistic joy in bludgeoning a weak International squad. Also, he has this ongoing habit of doing something cool in the Saturday afternoon session.

Bad Vibes: Won't stop requesting a "loser's dungeon" in the team room.

Will He Even Win a Point?: I think this is where he and Xander get their team golf groove back. 4-1 coming, with his only loss coming in singles to Steve Elkington.

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2: Justin Thomas

Good Vibes: Generationally good team-match-play golfer, one of the few bright spots in the hellscape that is American Ryder Cup performance over the last 10 years.

Bad Vibes: None, except those imparted by the fools and simps who perennially want to exclude a guy who has gone 10-3-2 in this competition and 9-6-2 in the Ryder Cup. Next time you hear someone whining about the "old boys club" in reference to JT, remind them of that record. Or just throw cold water in their faces and run away, because they probably won't listen anyway.

Will He Even Win a Point?: 5-0 paired with the next guy on this list.

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1: Jackson Koivun

Good Vibes: Look, America needs some HOPE in the Ryder Cup, and we need it STAT. I know the Presidents Cup isn't about the Ryder Cup, but since it's a guaranteed win, I'm looking toward the future, and I'm putting all my belief into Koivun as the gritty young winner who finally gives America a No. 1 golfer that is also a badass in team events. "Scottie in stroke play, Seve in match play."

Bad Vibes: NONE. Move along.

Will He Even Win a Point?: 5-0 with JT, unless Snedeker is too much of a coward to play him in the first session because he's a rookie. In which case Furyk should swoop in like an avenging hawk, stage a coup d'etat and take over immediately.