Turning loss into gain: Internationals channel Presidents Cup confidence at Shriners

LAS VEGAS – Trevor Immelman never let up telling his International Team at the Presidents Cup how good they were. While others around the golf world were talking his underdog team down, Immelman was building them up. And while they might not have won the Cup at Quail Hollow, the confidence spillover is obvious midway through the Shriners Children’s Open.

Four of Immelman’s International Team in Mito Pereira, Tom Kim, Si Woo Kim and Cameron Davis sit inside the top six of the leaderboard at TPC Summerlin through 36 holes. Pereira leads at 12-under, the Kim’s are tied third at 10-under with Davis part of a tie for sixth at nine under.

Furthermore, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Sungjae Im are within striking range at seven under and the remaining two International Team members in the field in Taylor Pendrith and K.H. Lee both made the cut on the number.

It’s not a coincidence. Immelman made it a mission to ram a big message home to his squad and it got through. Despite being 8-2 down through two days, his team took the belief and came back on Saturday before threatening to win it all on Sunday until the U.S. Team rallied.

“He did a really good job with us, telling us how good we are, and to just really be ourselves,” Pereira says of Captain Immelman. “Every day he did a little speech of how good we are and how we can do this. I think it really touched us.”

It’s not an unprecedented phenomenon. After the 2019 Presidents Cup four members of the International Team won on TOUR in the two months afterwards. Canadian MacKenzie Hughes admitted missing out on the team helped his motivation to win the Sanderson Farms Championship just last week.

Pereira came from the clouds in Friday’s second round in Las Vegas with a scintillating 8-under 63 setting up the first 36-hole lead of his career. He led last April’s PGA Championship through 54-holes before giving up the lead on the 72nd hole but that experience, and all four days at Quail Hollow, have him steeled for the weekend.

The same goes for the others. Teammates two weeks ago, competitors now, but all with skyrocketing self-belief.

“It was a big week for us. All of us learned a lot about ourselves. Obviously, the pressure is unspeakable at those events and it’s really tough but I think we learned a lot and I think we are starting to use that confidence we gained,” Tom Kim said.

“It's showing everyone that international golf is growing. Hopefully by Sunday, we'll all have a shot.”

After a 65 on Thursday, Tom quickly surged to 10 under with four birdies in his first seven holes before stalling with 11 straight pars. He laughed while calling it “boring” golf but pointed to his fellow Korean and friend Si Woo who provided plenty of drama on the back nine.

Sitting equal with his teammate at 10 under through 11 holes, Si Woo made an absolute mess of the par-4 12th. From just 140 yards out and in the fairway, Kim airmailed the green, then shanked his third shot right across the putting surface into a water hazard. After a penalty drop, he chipped his ball almost back to where he started behind the green before eventually taking a triple bogey seven.

Old Si Woo – who holds the record for the highest score on a par-3 on TOUR with a 13 – might have packed it up and gone home after that. But with the lessons from Quail, he recovered the three shots back, including an awesome bunker hole out for eagle on the 15th. His new caddie, Manny Villegas, reminded him what he’d dealt with just weeks ago.

“I’d never had that pressure before (like at the Presidents Cup),” the former PLAYERS champion Si Woo said. “But I learned how to play under pressure and how to stay controlled. It helped me be super comfortable over the first two days. The weekend will be different but I think the Presidents Cup has certainly helped the confidence.”

Confidence is the key for young Australian Davis also. Despite already claiming a win on TOUR at the 2021 Rocket Mortgage Classic and beating a stellar field to win his home Australian Open in 2017, the 27-year-old lacked self-belief at times.

But when he sat 1 down with idol Adam Scott on Saturday with three holes to play against Sam Burns and Billy Horschel, Davis closed eagle, birdie, birdie to steal a win. His 10-footer on the last was for all the marbles as the U.S. Team sat just three-feet from the hole. It instilled an injection of belief he says will never leave him.

“My time at the Presidents Cup probably highlighted how much importance is in that area. At a certain point you've got to start believing you can do it rather than relying heavily on the work you've done and feel like you've got a little bit of an inner boost going,” Davis says.

“I'm working on it. I feel like I downplay most of the stuff that I do, so I'm trying to be a little more positive and a little less negative when the bad stuff happens and a little more positive when the good stuff happens. If you can get a good balance of that, I think you're going in a good direction.”

So far in Las Vegas, they’re all going in a good direction.