Jay Haas selected his son, Bill Haas, and Phil Mickelson as his Captain’s Picks for the United States team in the President’s Cup, which will be played Oct. 8-11 at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club-South Korea in Incheon City, South Korea.
Sangmoon Bae of South Korea and Steven Bowditch of Australia were the Captain’s Picks chosen for the International team by Nick Price of Zimbabwe.
“I can’t tell you how honored I am to be picked,” said Bill Haas, who finished 11th in the U.S. point standings, one spot out of an automatic berth on the team. “I really, really wanted to make the team outright. I can’t explain how I feel.”
Said Mickelson, who has played in all 10 previous President Cups and was only 30th in the standings: “This means a lot to me and I find that these events are where real relationships are formed with the players.”
Mickelson and Haas join Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Jimmy Walker, Zach Johnson, Jim Furyk, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Matt Kuchar and Chris Kirk, who made the American team through the point standings.
“If anyone deserves a pick, it’s Phil Mickelson,” Jay Haas said. “He is without question the leader of our team in the team room, on the golf course. The guys on the team trust him 100 percent.”
Bae and Bowditch were added to an International roster that includes Jason Day of Australia, Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, Adam Scott of Australia, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, Branden Grace of South Africa, Marc Leishmann of Australia, Anirban Lahiri of India, Charl Schwartzel of South Africa, Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand and Danny Lee of New Zealand, who was born in South Korea.
The U.S. leads the series, 8-1-1, with the only International victory coming in 1998 at Royal Melbourne in Australia by a score of 20 1/2-11 1/2.
