Up until just a few years ago, The PGA Championship’s regular timeslot was in mid-August – making it the last Major of the calendar year. Coming after the The Masters, US Open and Open Championship, it felt like something of an anti-climax, and marketers cleverly dubbed it “Glory’s Last Shot”.

Looking ahead to this year’s edition of the Presidents Cup, at Royal Montreal in Canada, one may wonder if this might be the biennial event’s last shot at glory. For 30 years we have witnessed the powerful American teams canter to lopsided wins over their International counterparts, highlighting the gulf between the two teams.

The Americans have won 12 of the 14 events played, including the last nine straight. In this time, the Internationals have notched up just one win – back in 1998.

There will be some who point to similar teething problems with the early Ryder Cup as a reason to give the event more time. Between 1935 and 1983, the Americans lost just once in the Ryder Cup – racking up 20 wins and a tie along the way. This one-way traffic culminated in American Tom Weiskopf withdrawing from the 1977 Ryder Cup – preferring to spend his time big-game hunting.

The difference, though, is that these maulings occurred in a different era, and long before an event’s worth was measured in viewership numbers, ratings and the subsequent advertising revenue.

Could the Internationals spring a surprise and topple the Americans this year? It is possible. The International captain, Mike Weir, certainly believes they can, saying: “I think the guys are hungry. As a competitor, you get tired of it... We’ve got two veteran guys in Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Scott who have been part of the team for a long time and haven’t won, so those guys are very motivated.”

Weir will need to get the very best out of his 12-player team – which includes three Canadians – and hope the partisan home support can act as the 13th man and carry them over the line. He’d likely also need US skipper Jim Furyk to get his pairings terribly wrong – an unlikely scenario given the collection of superstars he has in his arsenal.

Weir selected six players to round out his team – South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Canada’s Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes, South Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Australia’s Min Woo Lee. It marks the first time in Presidents Cup history where three Canadian players will compete for the International Team.

The visiting team includes no fewer than five of the world’s top-10 players and Furyk enjoyed the luxury of not needing to stray outside the world’s top 22 to complete his six wildcard picks of Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Brian Harmon, Russel Henley and Max Homa.

In Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele he has two of the most in-form players in world golf, who between them hold three of the year’s four Major championship titles.

By contrast, the Internationals feature just one top-10 ranked player in Matsuyama, while the wildcard picks started at world No 38 (Conners) and end at 65th (Hughes). Only Matsuyama, Davis and Pendrith have won on the PGA Tour this year, compared to the 12 combined wins racked up by the American team.

A solution has been staring the powers that be in the face, yet they seem reluctant to take it up: make it a mixed event. Introducing the might of the Asian women golfers – not to mention the Australasians and South Africans – and suddenly you’ve got yourself an evenly matched event that has the potential to bring in an even bigger viewership and a step forward for equality in the game of golf.

It certainly worked for the Ryder Cup when the formula was changed in 1979 to introduce European golfers into the mix. Suddenly, two more evenly matched teams produced more exciting events that captivated the golfing world like no other.

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IMAGES: SIMON BRUTY/CHRIS TURVEY/ROLEX/SUPPLIED