Europe leads a tight Skechers World Champions Cup heading into Sunday
Jason Lusk- Team Europe holds a narrow lead after two days of the Skechers World Champions Cup in Florida.
- The three-team event features squads from Europe, the U.S., and an International team of PGA Tour Champions players.
- After two days of play, Europe has 109.5 points, followed by the U.S. with 108 and the Internationals with 106.5.
- The tournament concludes Sunday with singles matches, where 324 points are available.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Skechers World Champions Cup supporting Shriners Children’s — featuring PGA Tour Champions players — has a lot in common with the Ryder Cup, by design. Many of the players at Feather Sound Country Club have loads of Ryder Cup experience. And just like the most recent two Ryder Cups, Europe is leading after two days, this time over U.S. and International squads in the three-team event.
But unlike at this year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in September, this World Champions Cup is much closer heading into Sunday – there are no matches Saturday. After an opening two days Thursday and Friday that featured Scotch sixsomes and six-ball matches (more on the formats later), Europe leads with 109 ½ points, followed by the U.S. with 108 and the Internationals with 106 ½.
With 324 more points in play over Sunday’s two nine-hole sessions of singles play, this World Champions Cup won’t require any massive uphill climb for any of the three teams to claim the title.
“Obviously, this morning went very well for Team Europe,” said the squad’s captain, Darren Clarke, after his side grabbed a narrow lead after two days. “But by no means are we getting ahead of ourselves. As I said yesterday and said all week, there's a sensational bunch of players here. Both the Internationals and the American guys played some fantastic golf this afternoon. ... One of us mentioned earlier this week how close the scoring would be, and that’s how it’s working out.”
This is the second playing of the World Champions Cup, following a one-year hiatus after hurricanes in Florida forced the event’s cancellation in 2024. It was first played in 2023, with the Americans taking the title with 221 points, followed by the International side with 219 and the Europeans with 208.
Each team features six PGA Tour Champions players, a captain and two assistant captains. The American side includes Jim Furyk (captain), Jason Caron, Stewart Cink, Jerry Kelly, Justin Leonard and Steve Stricker, with Steve Flesch and Bill Andrade as non-playing assistant captains. The European squad includes Clarke (captain), Thomas Bjorn, Alex Cejka, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie, with Soren Kjeldsen and Jesper Parnevik as assistant captains. The International squad includes Mike Weir (captain), Steven Alker, Angel Cabrera, K.J. Choi, Mark Hensby and Y.E. Yang, with Ricardo Gonzalez and Charlie Wi as assistant captains.
The first two days featured three morning matches and three more each afternoon. The morning matches were played as six-ball, basically best-ball matches with two players from each team partnered up, playing against two-man teams from each of the other sides. The afternoon matches were three Scotch sixsome matches, with both players from each team teeing off before selecting the best tee shot and then playing alternate shot from there.
The Europeans led after Thursday’s two nine-hole sessions with 57 points, followed by the U.S. and International teams, both at 52 ½ points. The Europeans extended that lead in Friday morning’s six-ball format, scoring 30 points versus 27 for the Americans and 24 for the Internationals. The International team stayed within reach by claiming 30 points in the afternoon Scotch sixsomes versus the Americans’ 28 ½ and Europe’s 22 ½.
“You know, the guys scrapped and fought a little bit today to keep us in the mix,” Weir, who also served as the International team’s captain in the 2024 Presidents Cup, said of this senior International team.
Weir’s team had two unexpected lineup swaps on Friday. Unlike at the Ryder Cup in which captains put a player’s name into an envelope and that player sits out if there is an injury to either side, at the World Champions Cup, the assistant captains tee it up in place of any injured or sick player. That scenario first played out on Thursday, as the European side’s Langer sat out with an illness and Kjeldsen took his place in both sessions. Kjeldsen paired with Cejka to lead the team with a combined 20 points.
On Friday, both International assistants – Gonzalez and Wi – teed it up. Gonzalez played the morning match in place of Cabrera, teaming up with Choi to grab a combined 7 points. Wi, who had to have his clubs retrieved from his hotel room before playing the afternoon match in place of Hensby, paired with Yang for 7 ½ points.
The event takes Saturday off as far as points earned– there is a pro-am instead of official competition rounds. On Sunday, all six players for each team will play two nine-hole singles matches. With players paired in threesomes representing each team, there will be three points available on each hole. Two points go to a player who wins a hole, with the second-place player on that hole receiving one point. Points are split for ties. Taking the 3 points per hole for nine holes over six pairings in two sessions, it all adds up to 324 points available Sunday, the same as the total points awarded on the first two days combined.
Complicating matters is a weather forecast calling for rain and cooler weather Sunday in the Tampa area.
“We’re all going to have to do a little thinking about our orders, who’s going to play where and all that kind of stuff,” Clarke said after Friday’s matches, as he was interrupted by a smiling Furyk – captain of the 2018 U.S. Ryder Cup Team and the 2024 U.S. Presidents Cup team – asking him to “Tell us your secrets.”
“I’m not going to tell you everything,” Clarke, the 2016 European Ryder Cup team captain, said with a chuckle. “It’s a little bit more like we’re used to with Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups, who goes in what position. Going by these past couple days, it’s going to be really tight.”