To measure the scope of the Presidents Cup, a suggestion is to travel back in time – 28 years, to be exact – to when this international team golf tournament was introduced.
It was the brainchild of Tim Finchem, back when he was a deputy for PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman. But when Beman handed the reigns over to Finchem early in the summer of 1994, going full throttle on the debut of Presidents Cup consumed him.
The naysayers were lined up, but Finchem was steadfast in his belief that great players from beyond the borders of the United States and Europe deserved to compete on a global stage in an international team match. Should you point to the lopsided results – the Americans are 11-1-1 and have won eight in a row – you would be an egregious point-misser.
The Presidents Cup was about bringing the game a little closer together, because global golf, Finchem insisted, was here to stay. He knew it would be a somewhat awkward fit at first, but he begged for patience and offered a vision that a lot of folk struggled with.
To wit, there would be a day when the world's best players competed in the same tournaments dozens of time per year and American golf fans would know the international stars quite well.
If he were the type to seek the limelight, Finchem could take a bow. But instead, let's take a measurement to indicate how his vision has played out beautifully.
In 1994, half the International Team needed to introduce themselves to their American counterparts at the Robert Trent Jones Club in Gainesville, Virginia. Aussie Bradley Hughes had only played in six PGA Tour tournaments that season, while Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe (five), Peter Senior of Australia (three) and Frank Nobilo of New Zealand (two) attended even fewer. As for Robert Allenby of Australia and Tsukasa Watanabe of Japan, they hadn't played at all.
In all, the 12 International Team members had combined for just 141 PGA Tour tournaments in 1994, which is not an indictment of them whatsoever. It is a reminder of the era, when global traffic was limited to the world's very elite names and, while the Presidents Cup perhaps appealed back then to those who are intrigued by players they know little about, Finchem was convinced the stature of the competition would grow as American fans became educated about the Aussies and South Africans, the South Americans and the Canadians.
"In 20 years," he told reporters back then, "we can have an event of really premier quality."
Critique Finchem's statement as much as you'd like, there is an argument to be made that he's been proven correct. Three of the past five competitions have been close (16-14 in Australia in 2019; a one-point match in South Korea in 2015; a closer-than-it-looks 18.5-15.5 decision at Muirfield Village in 2013), and then there is the familiarity aspect: whereas 28 years ago the 12-man International Team combined for just 141 PGA Tour starts, in 2021-22 the 12 members of this year's Presidents Cup team totalled 282 starts.
That is a growth of 100 per cent, and the difference can be seen up and down the line-up. Eleven of the 12 members of this year's International Team made 20-plus Tour starts this year – Tom Kim appeared in 11 events as he eventually earned his card by the end of the season – while seven of them made 25 starts or more.
Budding stars from Chile (Mito Pereira, 27 starts) and South Korea (Lee Kyoung-hoon, 28) head the list of workhorses. Lee's fellow countryman, Kim Si-woo, will join him in Charlotte for his second Presidents Cup after a team-leading 29 starts this season.
Corey Conners made his first team after a year of admirable consistency, as did fellow Canadian Taylor Pendirth (21 starts). Aussie Cam Davis (25), South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout (24), Colombian Sebastian Munoz (25) and Japanese Hideki Matsuyama (21) also help comprise the roster.
Round out the team with South Korean Im Sung-jae, who with 'only' 26 starts this season is almost slacking off, and you have an International Team that is getting more and more comfortable in the US by the week. That, in turn, is why optimism continues to be an International strong suit.
"We're still talking about 18 holes of match play, and we've got to remember anything can happen in an 18-hole match," Adam Scott told reporters at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in late July.
"Momentum plays a big deal in these things. We saw that at the last one. We kind of got up early and we nearly hung on [to win]."
Veteran that he is, Scott would tell you that even as he and his mates have become more comfortable in the US thanks to a full complement of PGA Tour tournaments, another aspect of this biennial affair continues to make matters difficult.
That is an American team that is constantly deep and consistently young.
How deep? Ten of the 12 players on the US team are ranked in the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking, and the only two who aren't check in at numbers 22 (Max Homa) and 26 (Kevin Kisner). The team features number one Scottie Scheffler and four others in the first 10 – Patrick Cantlay, number four; Xander Schauffele, number five; Justin Thomas, number seven; and Collin Morikawa, number nine.
How young? Two are just 25 years old (Morikawa and Cameron Young) and five others are in their 20s. As for the 'old' guard, we're talking Cantlay, 30; Max Homa, 31; Tony Finau, 32; and Billy Horschel, 35.
That's deep, that's young, and that's one potent group teeing it up next week at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
It's an indication that the Americans will likely be heavy favourites to win for a ninth straight time. Then again, being the underdog is news to the Aussies, the South Africans, the Fijians, the Kiwi, the Canadians, the South Americans, the Japanese and the Koreans.
True, they've not yet come up with an answer to this biennial puzzle, but you'd be doing them a massive disservice if you sold them short. The big picture does them justice as you look at the 2021-22 season: four of their players (Matsuyama, Im, Lee and Kim) combined for five wins on the PGA Tour this season.
True, the Americans have bigger numbers (they combined for 18 victories this season), but Finchem's vision has played out as he predicted. International players have established global stature thanks to a high level of play on the PGA Tour and that will be prominently displayed in this year's Presidents Cup.
Focus on the individuals who'll make up the two line-ups, and not the past results, and you'll likely find 15 of the world's top 20 names. As promised more than 20 years ago, the Presidents Cup has reached a level of premier quality.
Premier League MD10: Lucky winners and unlucky losers
We are now 10 games into the Premier League season and the table is beginning to take shape, but that does not mean there is no room for an upset or two.
On Saturday, both Manchester City and Arsenal fell to surprise defeats at Bournemouth and Newcastle United respectively.
It was only the third time since the start of 2017-18 that both of the previous season's top two teams had lost on the same day in the Premier League, after March 7, 2021 and January 14, 2023.
Pep Guardiola's champions could have few complaints about the result at the Vitality Stadium, where Andoni Iraola's Cherries won the expected goals (xG) battle by 2.04 to 1.56.
But which other games featured a lucky winner or an unlucky loser? We delve into the Opta data to find out.
Unlucky losers: Arsenal
The weekend's action began with Arsenal travelling to St James' Park to face Newcastle, with Mikel Arteta's side chasing a victory to move within a point of leaders Liverpool.
However, they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat as Alexander Isak's early goal proved enough for Newcastle to make it three wins in their last four home league games against Arsenal (one loss).
The Gunners could count themselves unlucky to come away from Tyneside with nothing, however, after limiting Newcastle to a measly 0.53 xG – 0.25 of which came from the chance for Isak's goal.
Only West Ham, who played half of their defeat to Nottingham Forest with 10 men, created a lower figure across the nine games to take place this weekend, with 0.13 xG.
Arsenal were far from their free-flowing best, though, only recording 10 attempts worth 1.05 xG themselves. They have averaged just 7.4 shots per game in their away Premier League matches this season, with only Brentford (7.5) taking fewer.
Lucky winners: Southampton
Just two teams – Wolves and Ipswich Town – remain without a victory in the Premier League after Southampton finally got off the mark by beating Everton 1-0 at St Mary's.
Russell Martin's team accumulated just 0.74 xG to Everton's 1.56, but Adam Armstrong's strike five minutes from time handed them a huge three points in their fight for safety.
While Beto, who headed against the crossbar just 25 seconds before Armstrong's winner, and Jack Harrison spurned great chances for the Toffees, Southampton were also grateful for a late VAR intervention, as the former saw a potential leveller chalked off for a marginal offside call.
It was the first time Everton had failed to score against Southampton in the Premier League since February 2022, bringing their five-match unbeaten run in the competition to a halt.
Unlucky losers: Crystal Palace
Southampton ended the weekend in 19th, above winless Wolves after they were pegged back in a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace at Molineux.
Marc Guehi salvaged a draw for the Eagles, who were without star men Adam Wharton and Eberechi Eze yet arguably still did enough to leave the West Midlands with all three points.
They racked up 19 shots totalling 2.51 xG to their hosts' 11, which had a total value of 1.51 xG. Palace's xG figure was the highest in the Premier League this weekend, but they were missing their shooting boots as Ismaila Sarr squandered two glorious chances when they were a goal to the good in the second half.
With both defences struggling, this was only the second Premier League game of the season to be goalless at half-time but see both sides score at least twice in the second half, after Everton 2-3 Bournemouth in August.
There could have been a fifth goal in stoppage time, too, as Jean-Phillipe Mateta saw a potential winner disallowed for a foul on Jose Sa in the build-up. Wolves – and their under-fire head coach Gary O'Neil – arguably got away with one.
Lucky winners: Chelsea
Sunday's late game saw Chelsea fight back to draw 1-1 with Manchester United at Old Trafford, denying Ruud van Nistelrooy a first Premier League win as the Red Devils' interim head coach.
Moises Caicedo's well-taken volley cancelled out Bruno Fernandes' penalty and Chelsea arguably looked the more likely victors in the second half, but they only generated 1.1 xG from their 12 attempts – and just 0.29 from six after the interval.
United, meanwhile, had chances worth 1.98 xG, though Fernandes' spot-kick – with an xG value of 0.79 – was a major contributing factor.
Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho squandered decent opportunities for United, though, and incoming boss Ruben Amorim has plenty of work to do with their attackers.
United have scored just nine goals in 10 Premier League games this season – their worst record through 10 matches of any league campaign since 1973-74 (also nine).
Fans of a certain vintage will need no reminder of what happened at the end of that season – United were relegated from the First Division, their fate sealed by club legend Denis Law scoring against them with a nonchalant backheel, while representing rivals Man City.
Barcelona 3-1 Espanyol: Olmo brace sends Blaugrana nine points clear
Barcelona moved nine points clear at the LaLiga summit following a 3-1 victory over Espanyol in the Catalan derby.
Dani Olmo scored twice while Raphinha was also on target as Hansi Flick's side stretched their advantage over second-place Real Madrid, whose scheduled showdown with Valencia this weekend was postponed.
Barca broke the deadlock after just 12 minutes. Olmo latched onto Lamine Yamal's brilliant throughball with the outside of his boot, before beating Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garcia with a well-taken first-time finish.
The hosts doubled their lead 11 minutes later with Marc Casado finding Raphinha, who bravely lifted over the advancing Garcia.
It was 3-0 just after the half-hour mark, as Olmo received Alejandro Balde's pass before drilling home from the edge of the penalty area.
Espanyol, who saw two goals disallowed following VAR reviews, pulled one back when Javi Puado turned home Carlos Romero's cross in the 63rd minute.
However, it proved a consolation for the visitors, who suffered their sixth defeat in seven league games.
Data Debrief: Free-scoring Barca maintain derby dominance
Now unbeaten in 27 LaLiga derbies against Espanyol, Barcelona have now scored 40 goals this season; their second-highest tally after the first 12 games of a LaLiga season (42 in 1950-51).
Following Olmo's brace, which took his tally for the campaign to five, the Blaugrana are the only team with four different players to have scored at least five goals in Europe's top five leagues this term.
In setting up Raphinha's goal, Casado is the first Barca player from Spain to provide an assist in three successive games in all competitions since at least the 2014-15 season.
Zverev soars past Humbert to claim Paris Masters crown
Alexander Zverev soared to the Paris Masters title following a commanding 6-2 6-2 victory over home favourite Ugo Humbert in the final.
The German took just 75 minutes to seal his seventh career ATP Masters triumph, and second silverware of the season.
Humbert received a raucous reception as he aimed to become the first Frenchman to win this event since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2008.
However, the crowd were silenced when Zverev broke in the third and fifth games on his way to taking the opening set.
The Italian Open champion also dominated the second set, dropping just five points on serve as he wrapped up a comfortable victory.
"I knew I had to play like this to win today," Zverev said. "Ugo is an incredible player, but here in Paris, he plays even better than he usually does, and I knew that.
"Once the crowd gets involved, it's going to be difficult. So, I had to take that away early, and I did, so I'm happy about that."
Zverev was also delighted to triumph in Paris, and demonstrate the strides he has made since suffering a horrifying ankle injury during his 2022 French Open semi-final against Rafael Nadal.
"It was not 100% guaranteed that I would be back at this level," he added. "So, to win this title here in Paris means the world to me, and I'm sure it means everything to those in my box, because they have done so much for me."
Data Debrief: Zverev surpasses Medvedev and matches Sinner
Runner-up to Daniil Medvedev in 2020, Zverev went one better at the Accor Arena four years later, and will be seeded second at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.
The second German to win this event after Boris Becker, he surpassed Medvedev (six) with his seventh ATP Masters crown the outright most of any player born since the format's inception in 1990.
Zverev also matched world number one Jannik Sinner for the joint-most match wins in ATP Masters events this season with 28.
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