Captains Mike Weir, Jim Furyk set up final drive to Presidents Cup ...

Mike Weir remembers the summer leading up to the 2007 Presidents Cup in Montreal and how badly he wanted to make the team in his home country.

Almost two decades later, Weir is leading the International Team as the event returns to Royal Montreal. He knows the task ahead, topping a powerhouse American team led by captain Jim Furyk, is going to be a tall one. But Weir remembers that final day in 2007 like it was yesterday. There was a newspaper headline that said – when the Sunday pairings came out – that Weir against Tiger Woods would be like “feeding a lamb to a lion.” He took that personally.

“You can look at the physical skills of a person,” Weir said, “but you can’t measure what’s inside.”

With less than 50 days to go until this year’s Presidents Cup, Weir has been thrilled with how his team is shaping up – and perhaps this particular group is the one that can pull off a victory. On Weir’s home soil, no less.

“The (International) guys are sick of losing as much as us guys that were sick of losing back when we were playing,” Weir said. “We’d like to get a win under our belt pretty soon.”

With the FedExCup Playoffs around the corner, both Furyk and Weir know that several spots on their teams remain in flux. The American side will be led by the hearty one-two punch of gold medalist Scottie Scheffler and two-time major champion this summer Xander Schauffele, while the International standings are topped by Hideki Matsuyama, who just won bronze at the men’s Olympic golf competition in Paris.

It was no surprise that Furyk was impressed to see Scheffler play as well as he did down the stretch at Le Golf National to claim the gold medal. While Furyk said he’s been peeking at how Weir’s team is doing, he’s laser-like in his focus on the U.S. Team.

Making picks, Furyk said, is one of “the hardest things” a captain has to do right.

“Right now, my team is my focus and I’m seeing how they shape out,” Furyk said. “It’s a puzzle, right? I don’t know if necessarily you’re trying to find the best 12 for a group (but) how am I going to make a group of 12 and come up with the best team that I possibly can.”

Players on cusp of making U.S. Presidents Cup team

For Weir, not only does he need to blend both personalities and cultures together, but he needs to try to separate his feelings for his countrymen when it comes to crafting a squad.

As it stands currently, no Canadians are inside the top six for automatic qualification, with Corey Conners the closest at No. 8. Conners’ fellow Olympian Nick Taylor stands at No. 10, with Adam Hadwin at No. 12, Taylor Pendrith at No. 13, and Mackenzie Hughes at No. 15.

Weir’s Masters triumph in 2003 is one of, if not the main, reason why these TOUR winners even decided to make golf their chosen vocation. To have the opportunity to play for Weir would be a dream come true.

But Weir knows there may have to be a tough call or two in his future based on the structure of his team.

“Certainly being Canadian I would love to see all those guys make the team. But when I signed up for the job a couple of years ago, I knew when it came to this point in the process, there would be some tough calls. And it’s unlikely that all the guys in the mix are going to make the team,” Weir said. “Their destinies are in their hands these next few weeks to play well and prove that they’re playing well and deserve to be on the team.

“The guys know what’s at stake here and they want to be part of it.”

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The teams will be finalized at the conclusion of the TOUR Championship, and while playing rosters are not yet finalized, both Furyk and Weir confirmed they would each be adding a final captain’s assistant to their leadership teams. This comes after Furyk added Keegan Bradley as an assistant just a few weeks ago after Bradley was named the U.S. Ryder Cup captain for 2025.

“When Keegan was named (Ryder Cup captain), I definitely wanted to reach out, and obviously it’s not usually someone who is vying to make your team,” said Furyk of Bradley, who is 17th on the U.S. standings. “That’s kind of a new one for me.”

So the captains’ crews are coming together, the teams will take shape after the drama of the FedExCup Playoffs concludes, and the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal will arrive. Weir knows how special it will be not just for Canada, but for the game of golf at large.

“You know after the Olympics, just like that, this is pure golf and just a different type of competition than week-in and week-out on the PGA TOUR. ‘I want to kick your butt.’ And the other side wants to kick our butts,” Weir said with a smile. “That’s what it’s all about. And that’s what I always loved about it.”