U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Brandt Snedeker expects his captaincy to be a melting pot of past experiences.

There will be a hint of Jim Furyk, a dash of Davis Love III, a touch of Fred Couples, and yes, despite the U.S. Ryder Cup team’s home loss to Europe, more than a few morsels of Keegan Bradley.

Snedeker has held the role of U.S. Presidents Cup captain since April, but now fully steps into the spotlight following the loss at Bethpage Black. The U.S. Team’s next chance at retribution will come at Medinah Country Club next September, where the Americans will attempt to stave off more unwanted history. The U.S. hasn’t lost a Presidents Cup since 1998, and Snedeker is in charge of assuring that streak of dominance doesn’t end.

“There's not one cookie-cutter model of how to do this. And so I'm going to use the best I've seen from all the captaincies I've been around,” Snedeker said Tuesday at Medinah, “and then kind of make it my own in a sense. You know, the one thing I've gleaned from all these great past captains we've had is you can't be somebody you're not.”

Senedeker was a member of three national team competitions as a player (2012, 2016 Ryder Cup and 2013 Presidents Cup) and two as an assistant captain (2024 Presidents Cup and 2025 Ryder Cup), knowledge that will play a crucial role in his captaincy.

How the U.S. Team moves forward after the disappointment at Bethpage Black is unknown, though Snedeker said there were “a lot of positives” he hoped to build on from Bradley’s captaincy, particularly with how hard Bradley worked and how well he understood the team's needs. Calls for a major shake-up have become commonplace after every national team loss the U.S. experiences and the loss at Bethpage Black has been no different. Snedeker’s captaincy is still in its infancy, and how he plans to shape the captaincy in his unique image will become clear as the months pass, though he didn’t sound like a man who was planning to usher in drastic change.

“I really enjoyed the job that Keegan did,” Snedeker said.

There’s no evidence to believe that’s needed for U.S. success in Chicago next year. Despite the U.S. Team’s struggles in the Ryder Cup, those shortcomings have rarely extended to the Presidents Cup. The U.S. has enjoyed incredible success in the event, winning 10 straight iterations. The U.S. won the 2024 Presidents Cup 18.5-11.5.

“It feels like the U.S. have the last few times played better against us than they do against Europe,” said International Team Captain Geoff Ogilvy, “but I don't think that's actually true. I just think Europe somehow found a way to elevate their game so much that they played out of their skin.”

That’s what Ogilvy hopes to conjure in his squad. The International Team is expected to be formidable, as they have consistently been since Ernie Els established the shield and a cohesive culture ahead of the 2019 Presidents Cup. Ogilvy will bring his own wealth of experience to the table, not only as a previous assistant captain but as the lead architect in Medinah No. 3’s drastic redesign two years ago. That will create an interesting dynamic, with the away team leadership having an intimate knowledge of the course the U.S. will set up to negate them.

Ogilvy has been an assistant captain on the last four Presidents Cups and will similarly draw on the expertise of Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman and Mike Weir. Given his inherent knowledge of the golf course, Ogilvy will bring his own expertise to the table and expects to shape the team’s image accordingly. Though he’s also not afraid to reach out to outside sources to help the cause. Ogilvy said he plans to reach out to European Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald to pick his brain on how to cultivate a winning culture.

“They've done a really good job at the last two Ryder Cups and feeling like getting very organised and having everybody on the same page and they seem to be so, to a man, everyone involved seems to be so committed to the event more so than ever before,” Ogilvy said. “... there's got to be something there that would be interesting for us to learn because we haven't cracked the code in this event.”