Australia is in danger of having its smallest-ever contingent in the Internationals team at golf's Presidents Cup team when they take on the Americans for the 10th time.
Adam Scott and Jason Day are the only Australian certainties for the October 3-6 clash at Muirfield Village in Ohio, ranked first and fifth respectively among eligible players for new captain Nick Price's team.
Conversely, South Africa is set to dominate the 12-man team with Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Ernie Els, Branden Grace, Richard Sterne and Tim Clark all inside the top 10.
Japan's Hedeki Matsuyama and Argentina's Angel Cabrera round out the group currently in line for top 10 automatic selections.
That leaves Australians Marc Leishman (14th), John Senden (15th), Geoff Ogilvy (16th), Brett Rumford (18th) and Marcus Fraser (19th) needing to play their way into the top 10 quickly or give Price a compelling reason to include them in his two captain's picks to be named on September 2.
Last time around, the Australians could hope for some love from former captain and countryman Greg Norman and point to local knowledge of the Presidents Cup venue at Royal Melbourne to get captain's picks.
Zimbabwean Price may have other ideas and currently the tough Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand (11), South African George Coetzee (12) and Canada's Graham DeLaet (13) rank ahead of them.
Should they fail in their bid it would be the lowest Australian representation in the biennial events history, having had five members on five occasions, four on three occasions and a previous low of three players in 2009.
Price says he's yet to decide whether to use his picks on form players or for experience, with Ogilvy in the mix having played the last three times.
"That's the $64,000 question, and that's what I'm going to have to make a decision on," Price said.
"We will weigh up how much experience we have on the team, who the hot players are, and if we're short on experience, we may throw in a guy there who has more experience."
Price said Scott and Els had already taken upon themselves to be leaders, trying to fire up others towards what would be just a second International team triumph.
"Ernie and Adam were great in talking about the previous experiences, and a lot of the young guys had eyes were like saucers and were really soaking it all in," Price said.
"It's an exciting time. I've always enjoyed being an underdog going in. I think the favourites have more pressure on them."
Source: http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8699263
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