Presidents Cup 2022: Predicting Most Intriguing Potential Pairings

One of the biggest benefits of a team competition in golf, like the Presidents Cup, is that we get to see some of the best golfers in the world paired together.

Some pairings, like Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, click immediately and are expected to be seen at any team event.

Others will come together over the coming days at Quail Hollow Club as United States captain Davis Love III and International captain Trevor Immelman look to find the ideal pairings to put their teams in the lead going into Sunday's singles play.

The five pairings for Thursday's opening matches were announced on Wednesday and can be found here on the Presidents Cup website.

The same duos could go out on Friday and Saturday, or the captains could choose to mix up the Thursday pairings to ignite some momentum in their favor.

The International team's best strategy may be to pair two experienced players together to face one of the best American teams. The International squad comes into Charlotte, North Carolina with eight rookies.

The United States has six Presidents Cup rookies on its roster, but a few of them played in the Ryder Cup last year and that may help with Love's selection of his partnerships.

Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele formed the dream pairing for the United States over the last two team events.

Cantlay and Schauffele have first paired together three years ago at the Presidents Cup. They went 2-2 as a team and were one hole away from flipping one of those losses into a win.

The duo followed that success up with two victories at the 2021 Ryder Cup. Schauffele also won a pairs match with Dustin Johnson.

The previous success of the Cantlay-Schauffele pairing means we will likely see it over each of the three days of foursomes and fourball matches.

United States captain Davis Love III has enough confidence in them that he is sending them out as the first group for Thursday's matches.

The pairing may be broken up if they lose matches, but for now, it is the best duo on the American roster.

Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im were two of the highest point earners for the International team in 2019.

Im produced 3.5 points and Matsuyama totaled 2.5 in the losing effort in Melbourne, Australia.

The International team does not have much experience in team events, so captain Trevor Immelman may be willing to pair two of his veteran players alongside each other.

Immelman already displayed his willingness to do that by pairing Matsuyama with Adam Scott to take on Cantlay and Schauffele in the first match on Thursday's slate.

Im opens the competition alongside Corey Conners, who is the fourth different partner Im has played with in the last two Presidents Cups.

Im was paired with Cameron Smith twice, Abraham Ancer and Adam Hadwin in 2019. A similar strategy could be utilized by Immelman to put an experienced player with a new member of the squad.

Immelman could also call on a Matsuyama-Im pairing to pick up crucial points on Friday and Saturday. He may use the pair of Asian golfers to take down a strong team, like Cantlay and Schauffele, to maximize the number of points from a single session.

Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth could join forces for one of many potential superstar pairings on the United States squad.

Scheffler, who won PGA Tour Player of the Year, will start off the tournament playing with Sam Burns, who is one of his good friends.

Spieth will play with Justin Thomas on Thursday. The two have played together in numerous team events over the last few years.

We may not see a Scheffler-Spieth pairing if their Thursday teams play well, but it seems like an ideal fit for both players.

Scheffler is typically a mild-mannered player on the course and that could help balance out Spieth, who has a tendency to be more vocal about his shots.

Spieth holds more team competition experience over Scheffler, who is a Presidents Cup rookie, so that part of the pairing would balance out as well. Spieth may offer some assistance in certain spots for the No. 1 player in the world.

This particular pairing may not happen because of the Thursday pairings for both players, but it would be fascinating to see how the two work together in the team element.