The selections for the President’s Cup have certainly stirred up debates in the golf community. Yesterday, both Jim Furyk and Mike Weir revealed their captain’s picks. Initially, leaving Justin Thomas off the U.S. team sparked discussions, and now, the exclusion of Nick Taylor from the international team is generating similar controversy.

The captain’s picks for the international team include Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith, Mackenzie Hughes, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Si Woo Kim, and Min Woo Lee. They will join the likes of Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Adam Scott, Tom Kim, Jason Day, and Beyong Hun An who made it their way through the automatic qualifiers. With these pros, the international team now includes players from five countries, four South Koreans, and three each from Canada and Australia.

However, one Canadian named Nick Taylor, who was 12th on the International Team points list, is absent from the list. Expressing the shocking exclusion from the team, Dylan Dethier, a writer at Golf Magazine, shared a post on X. “Hard to believe that the guy who made this putt just a year ago and literally became the Canadian Open logo won’t be repping the International Team in Canada. Gotta feel for Nick Taylor,” he said via post.

Taylor won the RBC Canadian Open last year and was called the literal logo for the tournament. After his victory, the RBC Canadian Open changed their animated logo for the next editions of the tournament to honor him. Now it resembles the golfer’s iconic putt and his celebration of the win. However, the 36-year-old will not be playing in Montreal as part of the international team.

Mike Weir, the International Team captain himself, was sad over the matter and said, “It was a super tough decision for me, but one that was well thought through, and through a number of different analytical things and gut feelings and all kinds of things, it came to that conclusion, but it was very difficult.” The decision not to take Taylor isn’t sitting well with some fans.

The golf world is debating Nick Taylor’s participation

After winning the Canadian Open last year, the golfer went on a winless streak. He broke that streak with a victory at the WM Phoenix Open this year but hasn’t had any top-25 finishes in the last five months. A fan commented, “Would have been nice, but Taylor has not been good since his win in Phoenix. A seven-month long stretch. Too long a stretch of inconsistency,” emphasizing that the captains made a wise decision not to select him given his performance in this season.

On the other hand, one fan believed Nick Taylor should be on the team instead of Christiaan Bezuidenhout and said, “I would have put him on the team over Bez.” Taylor hit an incredible walk-off 72-foot putt for an eagle, the longest of his career to win the Canadian Open, becoming the ‘logo’ of the tournament. This year, he also claimed victory at the WM Phoenix Open. This fan believes the Canadian golfer would have been a better choice over Bezuidenhout, who has yet to win a tournament on the PGA Tour.

While talking about the golfer, this fan took a jab at the tournament, saying, “He’s fortunate to not participate in this boring exhibition. The President’s Cup is the lamest tournament in the world.“ This possibly highlights how the captain’s selections shocked many fans. First the exclusion of Justin Thomas, then Nick Taylor considering that they believe the tournament isn’t worth watching anymore.

This fan believed that just like Taylor, all Canadian golfers except Taylor Pendrith are not in decent form, saying, “The Canadians, with maybe Pendrith as the exception, have cooled the last few months. They haven’t been consistent at all. But any one of them could find lightening in a bottle for 3-4 days, so I don’t think it really matters who is in or out. We’ll see. Taylor is mentally best.” Surprisingly, Pendrith is the only Canadian golfer on the international team who has won a tournament this year. Despite this, a fan believes that Nick Taylor has the most mental resilience to make a strong comeback in the tournament, just as he did at the Canadian Open last year. He started with a rough first round, carding a 75 with four bogeys and a double bogey, but still managed to rally and win the tournament with a total of 271, 17 under par. Expressing similar emotions about the performance of the other Canadian golfers on the team, this fan added, “He was literally better this season than half the actual team. What a joke.” 

One fan indirectly compared Nick Taylor with Bryson DeChambeau, saying, “Wait until you hear about this year’s US Open champion.” DeChambeau played in all the majors this year, delivering solid performances such as a T7 at the Masters and a T2 at the PGA Championship, and even securing the silver trophy at Pinehurst No. 2. Meanwhile, Taylor missed the cut in all the majors this year. Despite DeChambeau’s achievements, he was not included in the U.S. team.

What are your thoughts on Nick Taylor? Do you think he should have been part of the international team? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!