Ogilvy to lead the Internationals at Medinah
AS September approaches, Australian golf fans will once again focus on Medinah Country Club outside Chicago, where the 2026 Presidents Cup promises another fascinating chapter in international match play.
Yet for Australians, this contest is about far more than the United States taking on the International Team. It is about Geoff Ogilvy leading the Internationals on a course his own design firm helped transform, while following in the footsteps of Australia’s greatest Presidents Cup captain, Peter Thomson.
Created in 1994, the Presidents Cup filled a gap in world golf by giving the game’s finest non-European players their own elite team competition. While the Ryder Cup remains golf’s most famous team event, the Presidents Cup unites players from Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas in a genuinely global contest. In many ways, it carries forward the international spirit once embodied by the old Canada Cup (later the World Cup of Golf), but with the drama and emotion that only match play can deliver.
For Australian golf, one Presidents Cup towers above all others.
In December 1998 at Royal Melbourne, Peter Thomson captained the International Team to its only victory, defeating the Americans 20½–11½. At 69, the five-time Open Champion quietly moulded a team of players from different countries and cultures into a united force. Greg Norman, Steve Elkington, Vijay Singh and Shigeki Maruyama all flourished under his calm leadership as the Internationals produced one of the finest performances in modern team golf.
Nearly three decades later, it remains the only occasion the Americans have been beaten, with every subsequent contest ending in a United States victory or, in 2003, a tie.
Now another Australian has the opportunity to write his own chapter.
Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion, and twice world matchplay champion, assumes the captaincy after being appointed in 2025. A veteran of three Presidents Cups as a player, Ogilvy understands the unique pressures of international team golf. More importantly, he inherits a culture strengthened by recent captains while bringing a rare advantage few leaders have ever enjoyed…an intimate knowledge of the host course.
Through his design firm, OCM, Ogilvy led the extensive renovation of Medinah’s famous Course No. 3, reopening it in 2024. Rather than simply modernising the layout, OCM restored much of its original strategic character. Wider fairways, firmer playing surfaces, bold green contours and improved angles into the greens encourage thoughtful shot-making instead of simply rewarding brute strength. It is the sort of golf Australians have long appreciated on the Melbourne Sandbelt.
Geoff Ogilvy will lead the International team, against Brandt Snedeker and team America, on a course Ogilvy and his design firm OCM have recently helped to renovate.
“The Presidents Cup has been a significant part of my career,” Ogilvy said when accepting the role. “I am honoured to now take on the role of Captain of the International Team for the 2026 Presidents Cup at Medinah Country Club’s Course No. 3, a place that means a great deal to me.”
Australian representation on the team again looks promising. Min Woo Lee appears well placed to qualify automatically, while Adam Scott, the International Team’s all-time leading points scorer, remains in the qualification race and would almost certainly earn a captain’s selection if required. Jason Day is also firmly in contention, while New Zealand’s Ryan Fox continues to strengthen the depth of the International side.
Australia’s influence on the Presidents Cup stretches back to its very beginning. David Graham captained the inaugural International Team in 1994 before Peter Thomson delivered the breakthrough victory four years later. Ogilvy now becomes the fourth Australian (after Greg Norman) to be entrusted with leading the world’s best non-European golfers, reinforcing Australia’s strong contribution to the event’s history.
The United States, captained by Brandt Snedeker and led by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, rightly enters as favourite. Their depth and home advantage have made them dominant throughout much of the competition’s history. But match play has always possessed an unpredictability that stroke play cannot replicate.
Medinah itself knows that better than most venues. It was here in 2012 that Europe produced the unforgettable “Miracle at Medinah,” overturning a four-point final-day deficit to defeat the United States before captain José María Olazábal dedicated the victory to his close friend Seve Ballesteros.
The redesigned course should reward imagination, discipline and intelligent course management as much as power. That may suit an International Team featuring players accustomed to firm, fast conditions and captained by a man who knows every contour of the layout.
Looking beyond this year’s contest, the Presidents Cup returns to Australia in 2028 when Kingston Heath hosts the event for the first time. A strong performance at Medinah would generate much needed momentum ahead of that homecoming and perhaps revive memories of Royal Melbourne in 1998.
The post The Presidents Cup | Medinah Country Club | September 22-27 first appeared on Inside Golf. Australia's Most-Read Golf Magazine as named by Australian Golfers - FREE.
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