When and how are the Presidents Cup pairings decided?

The 2022 Presidents Cup tees off on Thursday, Sept. 22 as a 12-man USA team faces off against a dozen golfers from all around the world at Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina.

The four-day tournament includes four-ball and foursome formats over the first three days, which involve two teams of two facing off in head-to-head matches. The final day is made up of 12 singles matches.

The lineups for Thursday’s foursome matches will be determined at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Sept. 21. The lineups for each day will be decided the day before, with the exception of Saturday afternoon’s matches, which will be determined Saturday morning.

The captains of each team get to choose the lineups for each day in a snake-style draft format, meaning that the US captain (Davis Love III) will choose his first foursome duo first, and the international captain (Trevor Immelman) will choose the two golfers who will compete against the Americans in the first match, and then immediately choose the next two for the second match.

You can see how the whole thing works here, as both captains and their teams make their picks right in the media room before Thursday’s opening day foursomes.

There is a total of nine four-ball matches and nine foursome matches, and each golfer must compete in at least one match in the first three days before everyone takes to the course for singles matches on Sunday.

In foursomes, the two-man team plays with one ball, alternating shots, while in four-ball, each golfer plays his own ball, and the lowest score at the end of each hole is taken for the overall score.