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Which S. Korean golfers have the best shot at the 2015 Presidents Cup team?

June 22, 2015

South Korea’s Byeong Hun An gestures, after winning the 2015 BMW PGA Golf Championship, at the Wentworth golf club, in Virginia Water, England, Sunday May 24, 2015. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)

An rises as hope for international team

By Nam Hyun-woo

With only 100 days to go until the 2015 Presidents Cup kicks off on Korean soil, interest from S. Korean fans is growing over whether Korean players can join the International Team.

The Presidents Cup is a biennial golf competition between 12 golfers representing the U.S. and 12 from the rest of the world apart from Europe. Since the championship’s inception in 1994, it has toured the U.S., South Africa, Canada and Australia, and will come to Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Songdo, Incheon, for a six-day run starting on Oct. 6.

It is the first time the event will be held in Asia.

Eligible golfers will be selected from the top 10 of the competition’s standings for each team. Aside from the 20 players selected, each team’s captain will then make two additional picks on Sept. 2.

To compete for the International Team, Korean players will need to be in top 10 of the International Team rankings, which will be set according to the Official World Golf Ranking at the conclusion of the 2015 Deutsche Bank Championship, scheduled from Sept. 4 to Sept. 7, or else be selected by the International Team captain Nick Price.

A win at major tournaments lifts a player’s ranking significantly, and the race for a spot in the International Team is not over yet. Here are Korean candidates who can make it into one of the biggest events in world golf.

An Byeong-hun

An, the unexpected winner of the BMW PGA Championship — the flagship event of the European Tour — is currently rising as Korea’s main hope for a spot in the International Team.

As of Sunday morning, An is in ninth place in the International Team standings, with an average 2.41 points, 0.02 points clear of 10th-placed Marc Leishman of Australia. Jason Day leads the standings with an average of 5.65 points.

Before An hoisted the trophy at the BMW Championship, the Presidents Cup window seemed to be closed for Korean players.

However, An’s victory revived expectations that a Korean will play at the Presidents Cup after lifting him 29 places from his previous 38th position and giving him a spot at the U.S. Open and the British Open, increasing his chance to collect more points.

“It would be great I think, playing in my home country and representing the International Team means I’m in the top 12 international players in the world, so it would be an honor to play,” An said during an interview discussing the Presidents Cup. “I love playing in team matches and would love to be part of it. I never thought about it because I was way behind those guys before the BMW PGA, but now I’m starting to think about it.”

On Saturday, An shot 76 at the second round of the U.S. Open, missing the cut with nine over 194. Other Koreans — Yang Gunn, Baek Seuk-hyun — also failed to advance to the final two rounds, after Yang had 10 over 150 and Baek recorded 16 over 156.

An told Yonhap News Agency that his drives were not good over the two rounds. He will now take a week long break before resuming competition.

Bae Sang-moon

Bae was the most likely Korean to be selected for the Presidents Cup until he was embroiled in a military row. He is now far away from achieving this after fading from domestic fans’ expectations.

Bae won the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship in 2013, claiming his first trophy at the PGA Tour, and clinched the Frys.com Open title last year, which was the opening event of this season. Since then he has lost momentum, finishing tied for fifth at the CIMB Classic, and sixth place at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Before An’s surprise win, Bae was closest to the top 10 for the International Team standings, hovering between 15th and 17th place.

His slump came after a letter from Korea’s Military Manpower Administration (MMA) at the end of last year. An MMA office in his hometown of Daegu, denied Bae’s request to extend his overseas travel permit. The denial forces Bae, who has not finished Korea’s mandatory military service, to return to Korea by the end of January 2015.

As Bae refused to put his budding golfing career on hold, the MMA took legal action in early February, and he is now embroiled in a legal battle with the office.

The hassle clearly took Bae’s attention away from the course. Since the Northern Trust Open in February, he has not made it into the top 10. In two events in May — the Crowne Plaza Invitational and AT&T Byron Nelson — he missed the cut. In PGA money rankings, he plummeted to 26th place on Sunday from the position of 2nd at the beginning of the season.

As he is in a legal battle, it is not clear whether Bae can even compete at the Presidents Cup. During a recent hearing, Bae’s legal aides claimed that Bae should be allowed to postpone his conscription given his performances at PGA Tour are tantamount to national team athletes reaping good results at international competitions, thus he should also be given benefits similar to national team athletes.

However, this claim fed negative sentiment from the Korean people, who disprove of stars who are exempted from conscription with reasons unacceptable to them.

Along with An and Bae, other Koreans who aim for a spot in the International Team include Noh Seung-yul, ranked in 26th place, and K.J. Choi who sits in 41st place. Danny Lee meanwhile is in 44th and Hur In-hoi is in 47th.