Since the Presidents Cup was established in 1994, the International Team has generally struggled, with just one victory and one tie against the US, which has taken the title in the match's 12 other editions.
Given that, points tended to be hard to come by among the 72 players who had represented the International Team before the 2024 match.
Six of those - Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith, Emiliano Grillo, Li Haotong, Richard Sterne and Camillo Villegas - have failed to even get off the mark, although the Canadian pair of Conners and Pendrith will get another chance in their homeland at the 2024 edition at Royal Montreal Golf Club.
However, despite the International Team’s struggles in general, other players have fared far better, although only Steve Elkington, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Louis Oosthuizen, Nick Price, Adam Scott, Vijay Singh and 2024 captain Mike Weir have reached double figures.
Of those, two share the lead as the International Team’s highest points scorer – South African Els, who racked up 21 points between 1996 and 2013, and Australian Adam Scott. The pair sit 0.5 points higher than Fijian Vijay Singh, who achieved 20.5 points in eight appearances between 1994 and 2009.
Scott qualified automatically for the 2024 Presidents Cup, meaning he will make his 11th appearance at the match, where another 0.5 points will give him the outright lead among International Team players, albeit after Els reached 21 points in just eight appearances.
Remarkably, in one of those appearances, in 2000, Els even failed to take a point. However, heavy points accumulation in the other seven appearances, including his best haul of four in 2003, helped ensure that after his final appearance in 2013, he held the outright lead, which was finally matched by Scott in 2022.
Scott’s maiden Presidents Cup appearance came in 2003 when he claimed three points as the International Team tied the match with the US 17-17.
He did even better in 2005, with 3.5 points as his team lost 18.5 to 15.5. Two years later, at the venue for the 2024 edition, he accumulated 1.5 points as the International Team lost 14.5 to 19.5
In 2009, Scott won one point in a 19.5 to 14.5 defeat, before he earned two points as the International Team lost again in 2011, this time by 15-19, while in 2013, he won 2.5 points in an 18.5 to 15.5 defeat.
The International Team came close to victory in 2015, helped by Scott’s two points, but ultimately, it lost yet again, this time by 14.5 to 15.5 points, while in 2017, Scott won just one point as the team suffered a 19-11 defeat to the US.
The US won again in 2019, this time by 16-14 at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Scott’s homeland, where he won 2.5 points, before the International Team lost by 17.5 to 12.5 points at Quail Hollow in 2022, when Scott won two points to draw level with Els.
Given the 44-year-old has yet to draw a blank at a Presidents Cup, it would be a surprise if he didn’t move into the outright lead as the top International Team points scorer in 2024.
However, while that would be a big achievement for the Australian, he would still be some way short of the match's overall leading points scorer, Phil Mickelson, who achieved 32.5 in 12 appearances between 1994 and 2017.
