Golf's elite players are pampered to the extreme, gifted with equipment and clothing, presented courtesy cars and meals, rewarded with huge sums of money for their success in a non-contact sport that they can excel at from the time they are teenagers until they are eligible for senior discounts.
So it is easy to see why they might not get motivated for a "meaningless'' exhibition in which there is no prize money awarded, their offseason schedules interrupted by more international travel.
The Ryder Cup long ago proved to be a golf event far beyond inconsequential, and the Presidents Cup, for all its perceived flaws, proved over the weekend that the same is true.
Anyone in the United States who stayed up to watch late Saturday night and into Sunday morning was reminded again how these team competitions have a way of producing some of the best and worst among the most accomplished players in the world without a dollar, euro, pound or any other currency at stake.
To think it doesn't matter dismisses the emotional TV interview U.S. captain Jay Haas did in the aftermath, trying to hold it together as he explained a U.S. victory that was capped by his son, Bill, winning the last match on the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea course -- over hometown star Sang-Moon Bae.
For only the third time in 11 Presidents Cups, the outcome was decided by less than two points, the U.S. prevailing 15½ to 14½, with Bill Haas' 1-up victory proving to be the difference.
Needing to win the final hole to produce a tie in their match that would have left the overall Presidents Cup tied -- meaning both teams would have shared the Cup, unlike at the Ryder Cup -- Bae, who is from the same Incheon, South Korea, town where the competition was played, chunked a pitch shot on the final hole that thwarted any chance of victory.
It was a heartbreaking scene, as Bae fell to his knees and covered his head, the groans of his countrymen in his ears. Playing what was expected to be his last competitive golf for two years as he is set to embark on mandatory military service in South Korea, Bae would have been the ultimate story had he pulled out a tie and stopped the U.S. winning streak.
He'll undoubtedly be, unfairly, remembered for that last hole, but his inspired play -- he kept the match alive with several clutch shots down the stretch -- and a 2-1-1 overall record helped make this the most competitive Presidents Cup in a decade.
Like the Ryder Cup, there is always a good amount of analyzing and scrutinizing in the aftermath, the product of every match meaning so much in the end.
For example, what if International captain Nick Price and several of his team members -- after several years of lobbying -- had not gotten PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem to relent and condense the competition from 34 points to 30? Cutting out those four points made for more strategy decisions and negated a U.S. depth advantage. The way the singles matches played out, it was an excellent decision that made for a drama-filled event.
And such questions lingered on both sides.
What if Price had played the hometown hero Bae on the opening day? The U.S. dominated the opening foursomes session 4-1 with Bae sitting on the bench.
What if Phil Mickelson had not put a different ball into play on Friday? The rules violation not only kept him and partner Zach Johnson from possibly tying the hole, but it also came with a stern one-hole match adjustment. They ended up halving their match with Jason Day and Adam Scott, a half point that proved to be quite significant.
What if Day had won just a single match? The Australian star, who was the highest-ranked player on the International side at No. 2, failed to win any of his five matches, going 0-4-1.
What if Bubba Watson had not missed not one, but two short putts on the 18th green, including in singles? Those misses turned U.S. victories into half points, a combined full one-point difference.
What if Anirban Lahiri had not missed a 4-footer at the last hole Sunday? The first Indian golfer to compete in the Presidents Cup, Lahiri went 0-3 and handed the U.S. a full point when he rushed his putt -- where Chris Kirk had just made a 15-footer for birdie that Lahiri couldn't match.
And on it goes, the beauty of match play, especially in a team competition, where the pressure can be suffocating.
The top two players in the world, Jordan Spieth and Day, each failed to win their singles matches Sunday, a shocking development only if you forget the fact that Spieth lost to a guy, Marc Leishman, who played off for The Open title at St. Andrews, and Day lost to the guy, Zach Johnson, who won the Claret Jug.
Johnson and Mickelson, the two oldest players on the U.S. side, proved to be valuable assets for the Americans, each going 3-0-1 in the competition.
And no player better illustrates how big of a deal these team competitions can be to the players than Mickelson.
A controversial captain's pick by Jay Haas because Mickelson finished 30th in the points standings and had just one top-10 finish in the closing months of the season, Mickelson played far more than the cheerleader role that was expected.
An overwhelming choice to be picked by his teammates, Mickelson delivered on the course as well and showed that some veteran leadership and levity can perhaps go a long way.
Three times Mickelson holed shots from just off the green, and he also knocked in a fairway bunker shot for an eagle.
"It was an emotional week for me, because I haven't played my best the past couple years,'' said Mickelson, who has competed in all 11 Presidents Cups as well as the past 10 Ryder Cups. "The last few months I could feel it starting to turn, and the fact that the guys on the team went to captain Haas and wanted me on the team was an emotional thing.
"Jay kind of gave me the freedom to just be me, and sometimes I say and do some dumb stuff, and sometimes I can help some guys lighten the tension because we all feel pressure. Even though we have done very well in this event for a number of years, we still feel pressure. We're representing our country and we're representing our teammates and we feel responsible when we don't play our best. We feel accountable to others, not just ourselves.''
For all the angst over the Mickelson pick, he has now gone 10-4-2 over the past four Ryder Cup/Presidents Cup competitions, including 8-2-2 in the team formats.
A Hall of Famer with 42 PGA Tour victories and five major championships, these team competitions have always meant a ton to Mickelson, even in the jaded, lucrative world of professional golf where the highs and lows go well beyond playing for money.
