With the Ryder Cup in the rearview mirror, it’s time to start thinking about the next national team competition that’s less than a year away: the 2026 Presidents Cup.

There are plenty of unknowns surrounding both teams, with the U.S. hoping to reverse course after a disappointing showing at Bethpage Black and the Internationals trying to exploit any possible chinks in the U.S. Team’s armor and win for the first time since 1998.

U.S. Captain Brandt Snedeker and International Captain Geoff Ogilvy spoke from Medinah Country Club on Tuesday, celebrating the countdown to the Presidents Cup. In that spirit, here are five storylines to track over the next several months as the race to the Presidents Cup heats up.

1. Does the U.S. Team need to make any substantive changes?

It’s inevitable in the aftermath of a defeat to question whether change is needed. It happens in every team sport, and certainly after every Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. The fact that the U.S. became the first team to lose a home Ryder Cup since 2012 has only heightened the discourse in the weeks since Bethpage, raising questions about what went wrong and how to fix it.

So, how will the U.S. Team adapt, if at all? Presidents Cup Captain Brandt Snedeker was a vice captain of Keegan Bradley’s at Bethpage, so he had an inside look at the team dynamic and would be intimately familiar with the team’s strengths and flaws. Each captain puts their own spin on the team and Snedeker is likely no different, though Bradley addressed some of the key operational issues that players identified over the last several years.

It’s also entirely plausible – and justifiable – if Snedeker keeps the status quo. No matter the struggles at the Ryder Cup, the U.S. has always performed in the Presidents Cup. And a small sample size of three days at Bethpage Black – one of which nearly went down in history as an improbable U.S. comeback – is hard to draw sweeping conclusions.

2. Can the International Team’s core find footing?

It wasn’t a banner year for some of the International Team’s prominent players, and it’s a trend they’ll hope to reverse ahead of Medinah next fall.

Tom Kim, Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama – arguably the three most vital cogs in the International Team’s operation – had underwhelming seasons compared to their expectations. Kim missed the Playoffs and dropped outside the top-80 in the OWGR. Scott failed to register a top-10 for the first time in his TOUR career. Matsuyama won The Sentry in January, but otherwise did not finish better than T13 in any other tournament.

As much as the back-end of these national team rosters gets scrutinized, who International Captain Geoff Ogilvy selects as picks won’t matter if the team’s best players don’t perform. Kim, Scott, and Matsuyama will need to shoulder a heavy load, and they’ll need to play better in 2026 to inspire confidence in that happening.

3. Will Keegan Bradley play?

After missing out on a decade of national team competitions, will Bradley find himself donning the red and blue for the third straight year? The American played on the 2024 Presidents Cup team and likely would have made the 2025 Ryder Cup team, had he not already been the captain. Bradley’s captaincy felt like the culmination of the second act of his career. But can Bradley extend that into another team appearance as a player?

If 2025 is any indication, Bradley will be on Captain Snedeker’s shortlist. Bradley has notched victories in each of the last four calendar years and hasn’t dropped outside of the top-25 in the Official World Gold Ranking since June of 2023.

Undoubtedly, Bradley’s loss as Ryder Cup captain will only motivate him to be a part of the next team. At 39 years old, he’s arguably playing better now than he did in his mid-20s when he won his lone major (2011 PGA Championship) and qualified for three straight national team competitions. Yet, form becomes more unpredictable with age, and Bradley will be 40 by the time the Presidents Cup rolls around. Can he continue to sustain this level of play and make sure his future at the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cups isn’t just as a captain/vice captain?

4. Is Geoff Ogilvy the International Team X-factor?

International Team Captain Geoff Ogilvy has unique insight into the 2026 Presidents Cup, unlike any other captain in recent years. He literally re-designed the course that the Internationals will hope to orchestrate an upset on.

Medinah No. 3 underwent an extensive redesign in 2023 by Ogilvy’s architecture firm, which he co-founded, OCM Design. In other words, Ogilvy is intimately familiar with every square foot of the property, as he spent years working and executing on the renovation plans. While the entire field will be seeing the new Medinah No. 3 for the first time, Ogilvy managed every step of its evolution. Will that yield tangible benefits for the Internationals? It’s easy to believe it could. Ogilvy is the architect of the International Team and will certainly use his knowledge of Medinah to craft his roster and pairings. Is that enough of an advantage for the Internationals to win on away soil?

5. Youth movement or resurgent vets for U.S. Team?

How different will the U.S. roster look from Bethpage to Medinah? It’s always a difficult exercise to predict who won’t make the next U.S. team, and there’s a tendency to believe there will be significant carryover from year to year, but recent history tells us there will be numerous changes. Over the last five years, there have been at least three – and as many as six – new players from one year to the next. So expect anywhere from 25-50 percent turnover.

So how exactly will the U.S. roster evolve? There’s a stable of veterans who could easily return to form and grab spots, like Jordan Spieth, Max Homa and Tony Finau. Though there’s also a list of intriguing young players that would be valuable additions to the U.S. roster – both for the short-term and long-term health of the U.S. Team, like Luke Clanton, Neal Shipley and Jackson Koivun.

Prioritizing youth hasn’t always been at the top of a captain’s to-do list, with each just trying to take the 12 best golfers at that time. But there’s an argument to be made that the U.S. should try to work in young players more often to set the team up for future success. Team Europe has done it well in the Ryder Cup, working with Ludvig Åberg and the Højgaard twins early in their careers, even when other veterans were viable.

Could the U.S. follow suit?