1998 Presidents Cup
# 1998 Presidents Cup

The 1998 Presidents Cup was held 11–13 December in Australia at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Black Rock, Victoria, a suburb southeast of Melbourne. The International team won the competition by a margin of 201⁄2–111⁄2. This was the first time the International team won the competition, and through 2022, is their sole victory. The honorary chairman was Australian Prime Minister John Howard. It was the third Presidents Cup competition and the first held outside the United States. The competition returned to Royal Melbourne in 2011 and 2019

## Format

Both teams had 12 players plus a non-playing captain. On the first and second day foursomes were played in the morning and four-ball was played in the afternoon. On the third day only singles were played.

## Teams

Masashi "Jumbo" Ozaki, who was aged 51, decided not to play in the event. He finished fourth in the International team rankings. This meant that his brother, Naomichi "Joe" Ozaki, who finished 11th in the rankings, made the team automatically. Hal Sutton finished 8th in the United States rankings but withdrew in early December following the death of his father-in-law. He was replaced by Lee Janzen who was the highest ranked player not already in the team.

International team :

| Player | Country | Age | Points rank | OWGR | Previous appearances | Matches | W–L–H | Winning percentage |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Peter Thomson | Australia | 69 | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain |
| Wayne Grady | Australia | 41 | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain |
| Ernie Els | South Africa | 29 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 3–1–1 | 70.00 |
| Nick Price | Zimbabwe | 41 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 2–5–2 | 33.33 |
| Vijay Singh | Fiji | 35 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 5–4–1 | 55.00 |
| Greg Norman | Australia | 43 | 5 | 18 | 1 | 5 | 3–2–0 | 60.00 |
| Steve Elkington | Australia | 36 | 6 | 16 | 2 | 10 | 5–4–1 | 55.00 |
| Stuart Appleby | Australia | 27 | 7 | 33 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Carlos Franco | Paraguay | 33 | 8 | 39 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Shigeki Maruyama | Japan | 29 | 9 | 43 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Craig Parry | Australia | 32 | 10 | 53 | 2 | 8 | 3–5–0 | 37.50 |
| Naomichi "Joe" Ozaki | Japan | 42 | 11 | 55 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Frank Nobilo | New Zealand | 38 | 13 | 60 | 2 | 10 | 3–6–1 | 35.00 |
| Greg Turner | New Zealand | 35 | 15 | 62 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |

United States team :

| Player | Age | Points rank | OWGR | Previous appearances | Matches | W–L–H | Winning percentage |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Jack Nicklaus | 58 | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain |
| Jack Nicklaus II | 37 | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain | Non-playing assistant captain |
| David Duval | 27 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4–0–0 | 100.00 |
| Tiger Woods | 22 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Jim Furyk | 28 | 3 | 12 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Justin Leonard | 26 | 4 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 1–3–0 | 25.00 |
| Phil Mickelson | 28 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 9 | 3–3–3 | 50.00 |
| Davis Love III | 34 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 7–2–1 | 75.00 |
| Mark O'Meara | 41 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5–0–0 | 100.00 |
| Scott Hoch | 43 | 9 | 20 | 2 | 8 | 5–2–1 | 68.75 |
| Mark Calcavecchia | 38 | 10 | 21 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Fred Couples | 39 | 11 | 11 | 2 | 7 | 6–1–0 | 85.71 |
| John Huston | 37 | 12 | 29 | 1 | 4 | 1–3–0 | 25.00 |
| Lee Janzen | 34 | 13 | 23 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |

* OWGR as of 6 December 1998, the last ranking before the Cup

## Friday's matches

### Morning foursomes

| International | Results | United States |
| - | - | - |
| Nobilo/Turner | 1 up | O'Meara/Duval |
| Norman/Elkington | 2 up | Furyk/Huston |
| Maruyama/Parry | 3 & 2 | Janzen/Hoch |
| Els/Singh | 5 & 4 | Woods/Couples |
| Appleby/Price | halved | Love/Leonard |
| 31⁄2 | Foursomes | 11⁄2 |
| 31⁄2 | Overall | 11⁄2 |

### Afternoon four-ball

| International | Results | United States |
| - | - | - |
| Norman/Elkington | 2 & 1 | O'Meara/Furyk |
| Maruyama/Ozaki | 4 & 3 | Calcavecchia/Huston |
| Els/Price | halved | Duval/Mickelson |
| Parry/Franco | 1 up | Couples/Love |
| Appleby/Singh | 2 & 1 | Leonard/Woods |
| 31⁄2 | Four-Ball | 11⁄2 |
| 7 | Overall | 3 |

## Saturday's matches

### Morning foursomes

| International | Results | United States |
| - | - | - |
| Nobilo/Turner | 2 up | Leonard/Love |
| Norman/Elkington | halved | Janzen/Calcavecchia |
| Maruyama/Parry | 1 up | Woods/Couples |
| Appleby/Price | 1 up | Duval/Mickelson |
| Els/Singh | 6 & 4 | Hoch/Furyk |
| 41⁄2 | Foursomes | 1⁄2 |
| 111⁄2 | Overall | 31⁄2 |

### Afternoon four-ball

| International | Results | United States |
| - | - | - |
| Nobilo/Turner | 1 up | O'Meara/Hoch |
| Els/Singh | 1 up | Woods/Huston |
| Maruyama/Ozaki | 1 up | Duval/Mickelson |
| Price/Franco | 3 & 2 | Janzen/Calcavecchia |
| Norman/Elkington | 2 & 1 | Couples/Love |
| 3 | Four-Ball | 2 |
| 141⁄2 | Overall | 51⁄2 |

## Sunday's matches

### Singles

| International | Results | United States |
| - | - | - |
| Parry | 5 & 3 | Leonard |
| Price | 2 & 1 | Duval |
| Nobilo | 4 & 2 | Furyk |
| Franco | halved | Mickelson |
| Maruyama | 3 & 2 | Huston |
| Ozaki | 4 & 3 | Hoch |
| Turner | halved | Calcavecchia |
| Elkington | halved | Janzen |
| Els | 1 up | Love |
| Singh | halved | Couples |
| Norman | 1 up | Woods |
| Appleby | 1 up | O'Meara |
| 6 | Singles | 6 |
| 201⁄2 | Overall | 111⁄2 |

## Individual player records

Each entry refers to the win–loss–half record of the player.

### International

| Player | Points | Overall | Singles | Foursomes | Fourballs |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Stuart Appleby | 2.5 | 2–1–1 | 0–1–0 | 1–0–1 | 1–0–0 |
| Steve Elkington | 4 | 3–0–2 | 0–0–1 | 1–0–1 | 2–0–0 |
| Ernie Els | 3.5 | 3–1–1 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 1–0–1 |
| Carlos Franco | 0.5 | 0–2–1 | 0–0–1 | 0–0–0 | 0–2–0 |
| Shigeki Maruyama | 5 | 5–0–0 | 1–0–0 | 2–0–0 | 2–0–0 |
| Frank Nobilo | 2 | 2–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 2–0–0 | 0–1–0 |
| Greg Norman | 3.5 | 3–1–1 | 0–1–0 | 1–0–1 | 2–0–0 |
| Naomichi Ozaki | 2 | 2–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–0–0 | 2–0–0 |
| Craig Parry | 3 | 3–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 2–0–0 | 0–1–0 |
| Nick Price | 3 | 2–1–2 | 1–0–0 | 1–0–1 | 0–1–1 |
| Vijay Singh | 3.5 | 3–1–1 | 0–0–1 | 1–1–0 | 2–0–0 |
| Greg Turner | 2.5 | 2–1–1 | 0–0–1 | 2–0–0 | 0–1–0 |

### United States

| Player | Points | Overall | Singles | Foursomes | Fourballs |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Mark Calcavecchia | 2 | 1–1–2 | 0–0–1 | 0–0–1 | 1–1–0 |
| Fred Couples | 2.5 | 2–2–1 | 0–0–1 | 1–1–0 | 1–1–0 |
| David Duval | 0.5 | 0–4–1 | 0–1–0 | 0–2–0 | 0–1–1 |
| Jim Furyk | 1 | 1–3–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–2–0 | 0–1–0 |
| Scott Hoch | 2 | 2–2–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–2–0 | 1–0–0 |
| John Huston | 0 | 0–4–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–2–0 |
| Lee Janzen | 2 | 1–1–2 | 0–0–1 | 0–1–1 | 1–0–0 |
| Justin Leonard | 0.5 | 0–3–1 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–1 | 0–1–0 |
| Davis Love III | 1.5 | 1–3–1 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–1 | 1–1–0 |
| Phil Mickelson | 1 | 0–2–2 | 0–0–1 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–1 |
| Mark O'Meara | 2 | 2–2–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 |
| Tiger Woods | 2 | 2–3–0 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–2–0 |
