'We've Lost The Crowds' And 'A Win For Team Europe' - 6 Key Takeaways From The Presidents Cup

The 17-13 scoreline in the 2026 Presidents Cup only begins to tell the story of what went down at Medinah Country Club last week.

Although the United States ultimately claimed an 11th consecutive victory in the event, Brandt Snedeker's team were made to work extremely hard for it.

The International team recovered from a 3-2 deficit in the opening session to build a three-point advantage with just singles Sunday to go.

And while their play in the team formats was exemplary at times, Geoff Ogilvy's charges were not able to sustain their form for as long as necessary and were swept aside in a historic final session.

In amongst the cold, hard points totals of each player were some fantastic displays and a largely entertaining spectacle on the course but yet more disappointing crowd behavior.

So with the dust having settled on the 15th Presidents Cup, some of the Golf Monthly team have shared their key takeaways on what we saw. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments box below as well.

Elliott Heath

I have plenty of takeaways from the 2026 Presidents Cup, from the excellence of Jackson Koivun to how impressive Tom and Si Woo Kim were in carrying an inspired International Team over the first three days.

But the first of my two biggest takeaways is that the Internationals might have just done enough to end calls for the Presidents Cup to change.

Yes, adding women or even Europeans might make things closer or more entertaining, but as a standalone product it was an enthralling watch all week.

Add Joaquin Niemann, Cameron Smith and Lucas Herbert to that side and they might have got over the line. Next time out in 2028 at Kingston Heath, the Internationals might have their best ever chance to win a second Presidents Cup.

My second main takeaway is sadness at where US crowds have now got to. Almost every shot of the Internationals was met with 'get in the water!' or 'get in the bunker!'.

It was a toxic environment for the away team to play in and it was no surprise to see what happened to Nico Echavarria. Scheffler is right that there is "no place" for that kind of behavior in the game, but I struggle to see it changing.

Golf is a respectful and honorable sport but we have lost the crowd, in American team events at least. I really hope the home fans behave at Adare Manor next year.

Jonny Leighfield

My key takeaway was that I felt a US win was inevitable, even with the three-point deficit heading into the singles. Brandt Snedeker's men had certainly underperformed in the team-golf formats and going alone is what they do best.

Plus, the Internationals had performed above expectations through the opening three days so maintaining it felt like a tough ask - especially once the US came out so hot on Sunday.

On a similar note, while the event as a whole was pretty close and entertaining enough, I couldn't help but feel the current eligibility rules and format will lead to almost exclusively US wins unless something changes.

Even if Joaquin Niemann and co. were allowed in, I'm not sure the level of uncertainty over the winner is anywhere near as high as it needs to be.

With that in mind, I had an idea for a significant (albeit unlikely) change I'd love to see at the Presidents Cup. Basically, it's the US Team vs the International team, but the latter is allowed to include Europeans.

But instead of effectively making it a second Ryder Cup, I'd limit the number of European picks to six out of the 12 so there is still a fair representation for worldwide PGA Tour members.

Again, it's extremely unlikely to happen, but how cool would it be for the International line-up to be: Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Si Woo Kim, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Ryan Fox, Hideki Matsuyama, Min Woo Lee, Tom Kim and Joaquin Niemann?

Matt Cradock

Overall, I think the Presidents Cup was a good event to watch as a neutral but, in terms of my takeaways, the US team have some serious work to do ahead of the Ryder Cup next year.

My first point is that a US win is the best outcome for Team Europe. Going into the singles, the US side were staring down the barrel but, with a comeback (which I and many others expected), everything now seems all fine.

What we forget is that the win came against an International team which was missing the likes of Joaquin Niemann, Lucas Herbert and Cameron Smith, to name but a few.

If the US team had lost the Presidents Cup, chances are there would have been inquiries into what failed. Now though, with the win, it's like the plan worked perfectly and they carry on as usual.

Captain Snedeker said: "I'm tired of hearing how we can't play team golf," forgetting that they only won because of the singles...

Speaking of the captaincy, and moving to my second point, I believe that the US captain and vice-captains needs a refresh. For me, Snedeker didn't cover himself in glory this week and, heading to Adare Manor, Jim Furyk's record in 2018 won't fill the Americans with much confidence.

They are great players but, unlike other US captains of the past, and I don't mean this in a negative way, the current crop don't appear to be as charismatic...

Following on from Adare Manor, it'll be interesting to see what the US does with the captaincy.

I liked the idea of having a younger player at the helm, like Keegan Bradley, but I feel the next generation needs to start stepping up if they are to switch their form around in team competitions.

Tell us your Presidents Cup takeaways in the comments box below.