In principle, the Presidents’ Cup repeated pressed.
For its first two editions, in 1994 and 1996, the Ryder Cup-style competition pitting the United States against the world (minus the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe) was played on the same course: Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, in Gainesville, VA, a venue chosen largely for its proximity to the nation’s capital. The event, after all, was called the Presidents Cup, with Gerald Ford as its honorary president. It made sense to keep things close to Washington, DC
In those first steps, the PGA Tour, which created the event, had no plans to take it overseas. It wasn’t until it gathered momentum – with the stirrings of a fan base and sponsor interest – that the competition settled into its current rhythm, moving back and forth, every two years, between the United States and overseas (it was postponed in 2001 by the attacks of September 11, and then in 2020 by the pandemic). In 1998, the biennial battle moved to Australia; Royal Melbourne Golf Club it was the stage.
In the following years, the Presidents’ Cup returned to the well more than once. He returned to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in 2000 and then in 2005. He also doubled at Royal Melbourne (2011 and 2019) and Royal Montreal Golf Club (2007 and 2024). This year’s edition ends today, with Sunday singles in Medinah No. 3 in the suburbs of Chicago that will decide whether the United States extends its stranglehold in the event or the International team pulls its second victory in 16 attempts.
Like the team rosters, the Presidents Cup venues have become more diverse. In the first two games, the International team had no players from Canada or Korea; on this year’s list, he has four. And now the event will expand its horizons even more: in its next two iterations, it will visit two courses for the first time. Here’s what to look for in 2028 and 2030.
Kingston Heath, Melbourne, Australia (2028)
The 2028 Presidents Cup is returning to Australia’s Sandbelt – just not at Royal Melbourne. Kingston Heath, just minutes down the road, will have its turn, marking the event’s fourth visit to Melbourne overall, tying Gainesville for the most Cups hosted by a single city.
Kingston Heath has been a fixture of Australian golf for a century, hosting seven Australian Opens and several Australian Masters, most recently in 2012, when Adam Scott – a potential international captain for 2028 – won on his home Sandbelt turf. But his reputation among architecture lovers rests less on trophies than on the ground. Dan Soutar laid out the course in the 1920s, and Alister MacKenzie, fresh from his work at Royal Melbourne, refined the bunkering in 1926, with construction led by legendary green-keeper Mick Morcom. Together they transformed a modest, largely flat stretch of sandy land into one of the most studied routes in golf, and one of its most compelling tests.
Bellerive, St. Louis, MO (2030)
Two years later, the Cup returns to St. Louis and Bellerive Country Club, a course with a pedigree of great events: the 1965 US Open (Grand Slam of Gary Player’s career, on the youngest course ever to host one), the 1992 PGA Championship (Nick Price’s first major), the inaugural US Mid-Amateur in 1981, the most recent PGA Championship in 1981, and the ,20 Championship. Koepka.
The club itself traces back to 1897, but the course that the Presidents Cup will play dates back to 1960, when Robert Trent Jones Sr. he was led to design 18 entirely new holes on the land west of town – a muscular, bunker-heavy layout nicknamed the “Ladue Green Monster.” His son, Rees Jones, gave it a $9.5 million overhaul in 2005-06, rebuilding bunkers, narrowing the fairways and adding water on the second hole. The result is a muscular championship course, and the fifth different place in the United States to host the Presidents’ Cup.
