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By Lauren Deason
PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator

ILE BIZARD, MONTREAL, Canada -- Of the 34 players who have suited up for the International Team in seven Presidents Cup competitions, a baker's dozen have hailed from Australia. Throw in the three from New Zealand and nearly half of all International Presidents Cuppers have come from Australasia.

At the tender age of 26, Adam Scott is already a veteran of two Presidents Cups. (WireImage)

Until Gary Player became the captain in 2003, the first four International Presidents Cup teams were led by Australians David Graham (1994) and Peter Thomson (1996, 1998, 2000) plus Captain's Assistants -- and Australians, natch -- Ian Baker-Finch (1996, 2003, 2005, 2007) and Wayne Grady (1998, 2000).

In short, Australians rule The Presidents Cup.

From rookie Geoff Ogilvy, who is finally getting a chance to compete for his country instead of sitting at home watching it on TV, to five-time veteran Stuart Appleby (1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007), they make up a third of the 2007 International team. With Adam Scott and Nick O'Hern rounding out the Aussie foursome, there's bound to be some late nights/early mornings Down Under as the nation follows its home sons.

"I would never have wanted to be an Australian sitting there, thinking, oh, man, I wish someone would think of another way to play the Ryder Cup, because now we have it," Appleby said of the biennial Presidents Cup competition that pits players from countries outside Europe against a 12-man American squad.

"I think it would be a loss if I never ever got on a team and never known what it was like, never had a win and never experienced being in that format at a world-class level."

O'Hern got his first taste of Presidents Cup competition in 2005 on a team that lost at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. But O'Hern boldly claimed his team had more fun in their loss than the U.S. did with their win.

"The guys just get on so well, and you've got some great match-ups. Obviously with the four Australians, possibly four South Africans, we all know each other's games pretty well and we all get along pretty well. And you have obviously K.J. (Choi) and Angel (Cabrera) and Vijay (Singh) and Mike (Weir), can't forget him....

Nick O'Hern shocked the golf world with his win over Tiger Woods in the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

Commonwealth Kings

Australians at the 2007 Presidents Cup:

Player Career Presidents Cups Stuart Appleby 4 Adam Scott 2 Nick O'Hern 1 Geoff Oglivy Rookie

"It's a very special event for me personally. And any chance you get to represent your country or in this case, the International Team, it's pretty rare in golf that you get that opportunity," O'Hern said.

O'Hern played David to Tiger Woods' Goliath at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and booted him from the tournament in 2005 and 2007. Visions of a Sunday singles rematch danced through the heads of speculative members of the media on Tuesday, but O'Hern was quick to brush off the thought.

"Whoever plays Tiger is going to have their hands full ... but he's one point and there are a lot of other matches that are just as important," said O'Hern. "... At the end of the day, we're all just trying to win our matches."

That's especially true of Scott, as the world No. 6 player called his previous 0-2 record in the single's competition "dismal.

"That's something I'd like to change this week for sure. We've lost it on Sunday every -- well, the last two events that I've been involved in," the 2007 Shell Houston Open winner and five-time PGA TOUR winner said. " ... I think me personally, from my experience, I need to knuckle down at little bit more and [make] every shot count twice as much."

Before Sunday's singles matches, on the players will participate in three days of Foursomes and Four-Ball competitions. Of the three Aussies with previous Presidents Cup experience, Scott has the best overall record, with six wins, three losses and one halved match. Appleby has won three times, lost 11 and halved two, while O'Hern earned two wins and three losses in his first foray.

But, as rookie Ogilvy sees it, it's not the individuals or their previous records but the sum of the team's parts and finding the chemistry to bind them.

"I think Europe will even admit that the American Team is stronger coming into the Ryder Cup yet the Americans struggle to beat the Europeans," Ogilvy said, later adding that, "on paper, the [International] team probably looks stronger than all of the teams. This team on paper is pretty impressive, if you just look at the world rankings and how everyone has played in the last couple of years, winning majors and big tournaments.

"Whatever the Europeans are doing with their chemistry [to win the Ryder Cup], if we can work out what they do ... [they] have proved that it's not how good their players are as individuals; it's what they do when they come together."

Scott agreed with his fellow countryman's assessment.

"If you look at the teams on paper, it's definitely the stronger event player-wise," he said. "The International side is probably the strongest you've ever seen coming into an event."

Stuart Appleby (WireImage)

As foe Woods put it, "we all know that the International Team is probably the strongest team that we face. They are stronger on paper generally than our team and generally than the European Team." American Captain Nicklaus and O'Hern agreed.

If it's not already obvious, "on paper" was probably the most-used phrase of the day at Royal Montreal Golf Club. And the universal sentiment seemed to be that, "on paper," the International Team trumps the U.S. Team. The Australians certainly help the case, with No. 6 Scott and Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion who is ranked No. 11 in the world, leading the list. Appleby sits at No. 34 while O'Hern ranks No. 36.

But the Aussies and their International colleagues have discovered that "on paper" doesn't necessarily translate to "Oy! Oy! Oy!" victory chants, given they only have one win and one tie in six Presidents Cups.

That could change this week, though.

"I would say that we've got a team that's more chest-to-chest than it's ever been," Appleby said. "I think our team is going to get more mature, Scotty and Geoff have plenty of years left and there's a lot of new young talent, international talent.

"I like our chances. I think every year now it's going to be more. We're not going to be the underdogs as much as we used to be in history. I think we will be much more up front and it will be real disappointing if we don't have a real tussle to the last couple of hours in the day."