Presidents Cup Opening Foursomes:Tiger Woods has been paired with good friend Charles Howell for today's opening foursomes at the seventh Presidents Cup.
The United States duo will take on South Korea's KJ Choi and Australian left-hander Nick O'Hern of the Internationals in the last match out at Royal Montreal Golf Club.
Woods and Howell played together on four occasions at the 2003 Presidents Cup in South Africa, winning twice and losing twice.
"He's a great partner to have because we are friends," Howell said. "Maybe in a sense I see Tiger in a little different light. I see him around home and I see him a little bit away from the golf course.
"I feel comfortable playing with the guy, but I'm sure everyone else on this team would as well."
Woods's performances at four Presidents Cups do not reflect his status as perhaps the greatest player in history with a win-loss-half record of 10-9-1.
He has especially struggled in the fourball format where he is an uninspiring 2-6-0.
"When you play poorly in this event it is different than what we do every week because, if anything, you just let down yourself and your immediate family and that's about it," Woods said.
The Internationals need to live up to their heavyweight billing by winning this week, according to Stuart Appleby.
"We've come a long way as an International team but we need to start winning," the Australian said. "It's been a long time (since we won in 1998) and our team has got better.
"I don't think the American team has got much better but we've come on leaps and bounds," added Appleby, who is appearing in his fifth Presidents Cup.
"Even when we won in '98 we didn't have a great team. We had a good team. But when you look at the 2007 team, you think: 'Wow, this is way better than what we would ever have dreamed of'."
Although the Americans boast the game's leading four players in Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker, the Internationals have a deeper 12-man line-up.
Captain Gary Player can call upon nine of the world's top 19, and six former major winners in Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Mike Weir, Geoff Ogilvy and US Open champion Angel Cabrera.
Presidents Cup
United States v The Internationals
Royal Montreal Golf Club
(US pairs first, all times Irish. ON TV: Setanta Golf 18.00-23.00)
18.15: Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan v
Adam Scott (Australia), Geoff Ogilvy (Australia)
18.25: Phil Mickelson, Woody Austin v
Vijay Singh (Fiji), Mike Weir (Canada)
18.35: Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson v
Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Trevor Immelman (South Africa)
18.45: David Toms, Jim Furyk v
Ernie Els (South Africa), Angel Cabrera (Argentina)
18.55: Lucas Glover, Scott Verplank v
Stuart Appleby (Australia), Retief Goosen (South Africa)
19.05: Tiger Woods, Charles Howell v
KJChoi (South Korea), Nick O'Hern (Australia)
