What Would A Mixed Presidents Cup Look Like?

Ahead of leading the USA to that brilliant Solheim Cup victory, Stacy Lewis floated the idea of the Presidents Cup becoming a mixed event in order to make it a more competitive spectacle.

And the more you look at it, the more you have to agree that it could well create a monster of an event to rival even the Solheim and Ryder Cup spectaculars we're currently enjoying.

“To be honest, I’d love to see the Presidents Cup become mixed. It’s the perfect way to blend the two Tours," said Lewis.

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

And here's why that's a great idea, and what a new mixed event Presidents Cup could look like in the future.

Why does it need to change?

Firstly, the reason why there's even a suggestion of changing the Presidents Cup is the lack of competitiveness in the event - with Team USA winning 12 of the 14 renewals with the International side winning once and the one tie.

It's not been particularly close in terms of scores as well on the most part, with seven of the USA's wins coming by four points or more.

There's also not quite the characters or big names on the International side that demands major attentions than there has been down the years.

Cam Smith can't play now due to LIV and although you have Major champions Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama you'd probably only put the exciting Tom Kim down as a true 'needle mover'.

Mixing in some of the top women's players in the world would certainly create a more competitive environment - as four of the five women's Major champions this year would be International Team eligible.

What would a mixed Presidents Cup format be?

Firstly on this point, let's get rid of the extended four-day Presidents Cup where the formats keep changing and the points on offer fluctuates down the years - from 32, 34 and now 30 on offer.

We know exactly where we stand with the ever-popular Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup. It's three days long with two sessions each of foursome and fourballs followed by 12 singles matches and the 14.5 points needed for victory is renowned throughout golf.

So let's have the same here but with the intriguing prospect now of having mixed foursomes or fourballs involved, so we have two men's and two women's foursomes matches in the morning and four mix fourballs in the afternoon.

Change it up on Friday with the mixed matches coming in foursomes, which could well be the highlight of the entire competition - picture Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda playing alternate shot against Tom Kim and Jun Young Ko or Min Woo Lee playing with sister Minjee Lee.

With those partnerships and match-ups providing plenty of storylines, just even watching the top players in the world playing from different spots than usual in terms of length off the tee and you've got plenty of reasons for watching.

How would the selection process work?

No need to get too complicated over this one as it could get a bit tricky - but let's just use the usual qualification methods for the current Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup shall we?

The top four points scorers in those standings qualify automatically to make up the first eight, followed by two male and two female captain's picks to get us to or magical 12.

Here again it would make for extra intrigue in terms of the picks depend on who else has made the team, a prime example being the aforementioned Min Woo Lee and Minjee Lee possible combination.

Think about all the talk and second-guessing that goes on around the Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup picks - now imagine them for this!

How would the teams look right now?

So, the big one, what would the two teams look like if we had a mixed Presidents Cup today? 

Let's look at how they'd shape up using the top four USA and International qualifiers for the 2024 Presidents Cup, the top four USA qualifiers for the recent Solheim Cup and the top four international women in the Rolex World Rankings.

So it's pretty straightforward for the USA as we'll just take the next two players in the standings as Allisen Corpuz is a tremendous partner for Nelly Korda and Megan Khang is a real livewire.

Khang playing a mixed match alongside Patrick Cantlay with their very different energy would be a sight to behold by itself.

For the International Team - Jason Day and Lydia Ko, winners of the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational last year, would seem a no-brainer, and who could resist playing Min Woo Lee and Minjee Lee together?