'Rahm sends Ryder Cup reminder as US warm up with Presidents Cup stroll'

Jon Rahm’s play-off defeat in the Spanish Open by world number 398 Angel Hidalgo, shows golf’s enduring capacity to yield upsets - but this trait rarely extends to the Presidents Cup.

In Montreal, the United States’ 10th straight win over the Internationals was as likely as Hidalgo’s shootout success was unexpected in Madrid.

Former world number one Rahm birdied the last two holes to take his home Open to extra time, only for the unheralded Hidalgo to prevail with consecutive birdies in sudden death.

Sporting romance was alive and kicking in the Spanish capital.

The 26-year-old champion from Marbella, who only a couple of years earlier supported Rahm from the galleries, has now secured DP World Tour playing privileges for at least the next two years.

“Winning at home, winning a Spanish Open with all the support that there has been, you could tell how much he felt it and how important it was for him," LIV star Rahm sportingly observed.

“May he learn from these moments and enjoy them.”

Across the pond in Quebec it was a bit more feisty and definitely more predictable. Jim Furyk’s United States team recorded a convincing 18½-11½ victory over the Internationals led by former Masters champion Mike Weir.

The Presidents Cup has plenty of critics. It is seen as 'Ryder Cup-lite' with its less intense four-day format.

Players coming from disparate parts of the globe to form America’s opposition has often felt confected - Koreans and Japanese teaming up with South Africans, Australians and Canadians.

But last week, even in defeat, Weir’s team did play with an apparent and commendable collective spirit, especially when they reversed the opening 5-0 drubbing in the Thursday fourballs with a clean sweep in the Friday foursomes.

There was niggle too, especially in the shape of Tom Kim. The demonstrative 22-year-old Korean made clear his displeasure at being asked to hole a short putt he felt should have been given.

Kim also complained that he and partner Kim Si-woo had been sworn at during their Saturday clash with Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. And the Montreal crowds were raucous, not quite a 'bear pit' but not far off it.

The young Korean, though, eventually backtracked. He went to Schauffele at the end of the match last Sunday to apologise for his comments the previous day. “I just told him I didn't mean it to go in such a negative way,” Tom Kim admitted.

“It was just outside the ropes, and I felt like that was a little misunderstanding on my part, which I should have explained better,” he admitted.

But the Presidents Cup requires edge and needle if it is to become the spectacle the PGA Tour would want it to be.

Right now, it is too one-sided and the gulf is accentuated by the arrival of the breakaway LIV tour, which deprived the home team of Australia’s 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith and the highly rated Chilean Joaquin Niemann.

Yes, the United States were without the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, but American golf still possesses great strength in depth. Their entire dozen-strong team was ranked inside the top 25 in the world.

How could these matches be improved?

There is outside support for American Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis’ contention that the Presidents Cup should become a mixed event.

The Internationals would be far stronger given the depth of Asian and Australasian talent on the LPGA. “It’s the perfect way to blend the two tours,” Lewis said at the Solheim in Virginia earlier this month.

“The international team will get better very quickly. I think it would be amazing to have the two tours together that way.”

But, even with yet another one-sided contest in the books - the Internationals have only won one of the 15 Presidents Cups to date - it is very difficult to see the PGA Tour changing course.

Such a radical alteration would not be typical of their usually conservative playbook. It will, most likely, continue in the same vein at the next match at Medinah in 2026.

That Chicago venue famously played host to the last truly close Ryder Cup, where Europe came back from 10-4 down to sensationally snatch victory by a single point exactly 12 years ago.

And, let it not be forgotten that the Ryder Cup could do with another close contest after largely one-sided home wins during the past decade.

US captain Keegan Bradley confirmed this Presidents Cup victory by beating Kim Si-woo after the South Korean missed from six feet on the final green in Montreal.

Now Bradley’s thoughts must turn to leading at Bethpage in 12 months time. Bethpage is likely to be an extreme 'bear pit' where emotions could easily spill over and turn ugly, especially if Luke Donald’s Europeans make it competitive.

Bradley, who bleeds stars and stripes, will have been delighted to witness close hand the way Schauffele, Cantlay and Collin Morikawa dominated the Presidents Cup, with all three winning four matches out of five.

They, along with world number one Scottie Scheffler (three wins and two defeats) - who showed uncharacteristically overt passion in Canada last week - will be the bedrock of the US effort in New York next year.

Europe should have the power, precision and passion of Rahm in their team. By playing in Madrid last week he took a big step towards retaining DP World Tour membership and therefore Ryder Cup eligibility.

The 29-year-old might not have won, but if his appearance in the Spanish capital helps him become part of a team that retains in a raucous Ryder Cup next year, it will still have been well worth playing - even in defeat to such lowly ranked opposition.