Golf:For Tiger Woods this week's Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne is very different to his five previous appearances in the match — and his six Ryder Cup caps. In all 11 of those Woods was the highest-ranked player in the United States team.
This time he is the lowest-ranked at 50th in the world, even after his third place in the Australian Open on Sunday. It is now exactly two years since the 14-major champion last won a tournament, his career as well as his marriage crashing once his serial adultery became public knowledge.
With injuries on top of that, American captain Fred Couples took a gamble when he made an early decision that Woods would be one of his two wild cards. It meant leaving out USPGA champion Keegan Bradley, but last week’s performance in Sydney has taken some of the heat off Couples.
Not that he appears to have felt that heat anyway.
“Look, how many times do I have to say that picking the best player in the world is a no-brainer?” Couples said. “Are you kidding me? Plus, months ago when Tiger was still hurt, he was telling me he wanted to be on this team.
“I don’t know how he felt about team competitions in the past, but I know he’s pumped to be here and he played last week, just as I had hoped he would. He’s had a lot going on the last couple of years, but I know he’s having a blast and he’s glad to be here.
“We had dinner four times in Sydney last week. There’s an ‘X’ on his back — I mean, he can’t go anywhere. Here he’s one of the guys and comfortable with them. And they’re happy to have him around.”
Woods responded: “Fred could have picked anybody and I’m thankful that he had faith in me to be a part of the team and wanted me to be a part of the team. A lot of the players wanted me on the team as well, so that part definitely did feel good.”
While Woods has been on only one successful Ryder Cup side — that was back in 1999 as he missed the 2008 match through injury — the only time he has tasted Presidents Cup defeat was at Royal Melbourne in 1998. Two years ago in San Francisco he won all five of his games, four of them in partnership with Steve Stricker.
They were kept together for the start of the Ryder Cup in Wales last October, but after adding two more victories the pair were thumped 6&5 by Lee Westwood and Luke Donald.
This week’s match kicks off with six foursomes on Thursday and, although Stricker has recovered from an arm injury to take his place in the side, it was starting to look as though Woods will play with Dustin Johnson.
“Nothing is definite, of course, but that’s the way we’re leaning — at least for starters,” Couples admitted. If it does happen, Johnson would become Woods’s 18th different partner in Presidents and Ryder Cups.
Hoping to make maximum use of home advantage, International captain Greg Norman has five Australians in his line-up, including wild card picks Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley.
After Norman added some spark to the build-up by stating that he would not have selected Woods, Couples pointed out that Allenby — ranked 69th in the world — has not won a PGA Tour event for a decade.
Then, of course, Adam Scott’s caddie Steve Williams came out with his offensive comment about former boss Woods, which inevitably puts extra spice into any clash between them this week.
While the Ryder Cup is decided over 28 points, the Presidents Cup has 34 games, with six fourballs on Friday and then five foursomes and five fourballs on Saturday before the 12 concluding singles on Sunday.
Another difference is that if there is a tie, the cup is shared. In the Ryder Cup the holders retain the trophy.
