The Presidents Cup returns to Melbourne, Australia and The Royal Melbourne Golf Club for the third time, 9-15 December,  when the Internationals, led by captain Ernie Els, will take on the USA led by captain Tiger Woods.

The South African charge has fizzled out with Charl Schwartzel out injured and Branden Grace outside of the top 15. That leaves Louis Oosthuizen as the only automatic qualifier. It is unlikely, though, that he will not be joined by Harding either by the Stellenbosch star finishing inside the top eight or via a captain’s pick.

Hideki Matsuyama overtook Adam Scott with a T7 finish at the 3M Open and moved up to No 3 in the standings while Scott fell to No 4. Mexico’s Abraham Ancer and Australia’s Cameron Smith also swapped positions, with Ancer taking over the No 9 position after a T19 finish at the Irish Open while Smith took the week off and fell back to No 10.

The top five in the US Team standings remained steady, with Brooks Koepka still atop the list after finishing 65th at the 3M Open. Koepka is followed by Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Matt Kuchar, who all had the week off.

US Team Captain Woods will have one more week of rest before returning to action at next week’s The Open Championship. Woods remains No 12 in the standings and is looking to become the Presidents Cup’s second-ever playing captain.

The top 15 players in the International and US Presidents Cup Team Standings as of 8 July, 2019 are listed below:

Rank   Last Week      Player                      Country                   Points
1.         1                      Marc Leishman             Australia                       159.42

2.         2                      Louis Oosthuizen          South Africa                  153.43

3.         3                      Hideki Matsuyama         Japan                            153.00

4.         4                      Adam Scott                   Australia                       149.17

5.         5                      Haotong Li                   China                           124.07

6.         6                      C.T Pan                       Chinese Taipei              117.03

7.         7                      Jason Day                      Australia                       116.61

9.         9                      Abraham Ancer             Mexico                         111.45

10.        8                      Cameron Smith             Australia                       110.58

11.       11                    Justin Harding               South Africa                  102.04

12.       13                    Shugo Imahira               Japan                            97.39

13.       12                    Sung Kang                    Korea                           94.05

14.        14                    Sungjae Im                    Korea                           93.39

15.       15                    Adam Hadwin               Canada                         83.83

1.         1                      Brooks Koepka                         6,809

2.         2                      Dustin Johnson                         6,445

3.         3                      Xander Schauffele                     5,574

4.         4                      Justin Thomas                           5,472

5.         5                      Matt Kuchar                             5,454

6.         6                      Bryson DeChambeau                5,225

7.         7                      Patrick Cantlay                          5,002

9.         9                      Rickie Fowler                           4,351

10.        10                    Tony Finau                               4,344

11.       11                    Webb Simpson                         4,058

12.        12                    Tiger Woods                            3,868

13.       13                    Chez Reavie                             3,689

14.       14                    Phil Mickelson                          3,535

15.       15                    Kevin Kisner                             3,269