More than one month ahead of the big event, final confirmation is already in:
this week the Presidents Cup was revealed as nothing more than a sleazy exhibition concocted by the PGA Tour for the sole purpose of making money. It has as much to do with meaningful golf as the WWF has with real wrestling.

Photo: © Jim Rogash/WireImage Gary Player with Mike Weir and his controversial pick from the last Presidents Cup team Trevor Immelman .

Okay, so a lack of PC credibility isn't exactly news, but I mean, how else are we to view the selection of Canada's own Mike Weir for next month's matches at Royal Montreal? There is simply no valid golfing explanation for International skipper Gary Player's choosing a man who has been wildly off form for months now. He certainly had a hard time justifying Weir's inclusion.

"Mike, as we know, won the Masters and has been a very, very good player throughout the years, a very, very good match player," babbled Player, who clearly had no idea that he was talking about a man who, four up on the 15th tee, lost the last four holes to Australian Geoff Ogilvy in last year's World Match Play Championship at La Costa. "Mike is a terrific competitor, a real fighter."

Yet again, that assessment has little basis in reality and more to do with the diminutive Weir's lack of inches because, as we all know, every little guy (see Player himself) just has to be a "battler," especially in head-to-head match play. Then again, maybe not. The Canadian, it should be noted, has only once made it through more than one round in the aforementioned WGC Match Play, a record that hardly commends him as a "fighter" or a man to fear when holes, not strokes, really count.

Plus, the numbers don't lie. This year the former Masters champion has but two top-ten finishes in 19 PGA Tour starts, lies 84th on the money list and his statistics are off the charts.

Driving distance? 110th.
Driving accuracy? 89th.
Greens in regulation? 155th.
Putting? 64th.
Scoring average? 54th.
World ranking? 46th


Then again, let's try to be kind. Maybe Player picked him because Weir, like himself, is one of the best bunker players on tour; he lies ninth in that statistical category. Or maybe because he is small, again like the diminutive South African. Or maybe we should just come right out and say it: Weir was selected because of his nationality. Of course, coming from South Africa, Player will know more than a little about discrimination - both positive and negative - on the basis of race and the distaste it can provoke elsewhere in the world. Yet he went ahead and did it anyway.

And not for the first time either. Player is well known for his - how to put this? - thinly disguised biases when it comes to his very personal Presidents Cup selection policies. Last time he picked family friend and fellow South African Trevor Immelman, it being only a coincidence that the youngster was without a PGA Tour card at the time and that his selection would automatically grant him one. Likewise, two PCs ago, a Player pick went the way of another South African, Tim Clark, it being only a coincidence...well, you know the rest.

Maybe we should just be thankful that none of Player's relatives are good enough golfers to be considered. Although saying as much out loud might only put ideas into his head for next time, if there is one after this latest farce.

Photo: © Stuart Franklin/Getty Images Anders Romero isn't the only person bewildered by his exclusion on the President's Cup team.

One can only imagine what Andres Romero must be thinking. Let's see, what has the young Argentine done in the last month? Oh yes, he led the Open Championship at Carnoustie with two holes to play in the final round before succumbing to a combination of youthful exuberance and rank bad luck. In that final round over what is surely Scotland's toughest course, he made the small matter of ten birdies. Tell me that sort of performance doesn't sound like someone ideal for match play.

One week later, Romero went to Germany and won the Deutsche Bank TPC of Europe, an event big enough to grant the winner a five-year exemption onto the European Tour. One week after that, the 26-year old former caddie journeyed to Akron for the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, where he tied for sixth spot. (Weir, by way of comparison, withdrew after an opening 77). All of which lifted Romero up to 27th on the world-ranking list.

I mean, come on people! Only three weeks ago, Player promised that he would select only those "on the up." Has he been asleep for the last month? Or under the influence of mind-bending drugs?

Perhaps the only consolation Romero will take from this blatant piece of outrageous bias is that he is hardly alone. Seven others eligible for the international squad - Richard Green, Aaron Baddeley, Robert Allenby, Stephen Ames, Richard Sterne, Rod Pampling and Clark (oh, the irony) - are currently looking down on Weir from spots higher up the world ranking. Clark and Sterne, another South African, can count themselves especially unlucky. If not for the fact that the previously automatic offer of a PGA Tour card has been withdrawn, one or both could surely have expected a nod from good old "uncle" Gary.

What a joke.