Greg Norman would have his name in more tabloid headlines at
the moment if it weren't for David Letterman and Jon Gosselin. Yet, the
International Team Captain for the 2009 President's Cup is still bound to face
plenty of questions about his impending split from the media assembled at
Harding Park. Hell, even celebrity blogger and self-titled "Queen of All Media"
Perez
Hilton picked up on the Shark's marital discontent.
Hopefully the lack of nuptial bliss between Norman and Chris Evert won't overshadow the action at the President's Cup which is taking place this week in San Francisco. The Associated Press reported that the announcement of the couples' separation was to quell rumors about Evert's absence in San Francisco this week. Don't you suppose the public would've bought anything less obvious than she was hiking the Appalachian Trail as a valid excuse?
Tiger Woods will be making his first appearance in international team competition since the 2007 President’s Cup, having missed the 2008 Ryder Cup while recovering from reconstructive knee surgery.
Woods lost his singles match that year (1 up) to Canadian Mike Weir (the event was played in Canada), who is again on the International Team. Will the world’s No. 1 golfer be looking to extract a measure of revenge, or will he struggle to find the motivation to compete coming off of his second FedEx Cup victory; a win that pushed him over the $1 billion career earnings threshold according to Forbes.
Overall, the United States team, which has only lost the biennial competition once in seven tries, has a decided advantage on paper. The U.S. side has four of the top six players in the Official World Golf Ranking (Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Kenny Perry). The American roster also features newly-minted major champions Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink.
The International squad has the other two 2009 major champions – Angel Cabrera and Y.E. Yang, to go along with past major winners like Weir, Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els.
Plenty of eyes will be on Norman’s Captain’s picks, Adam Scott and Ryo Ishikawa, who weren’t exactly recognized as deserved participants when they were announced as the final additions to the team. I’ll be watching Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas, who combined for a whopping 0 wins on the PGA Tour in 2009. Solid performances by both would at least wash away some of the disappointment they’ve incurred this season.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention U.S. Captain Fred Couples,
who recently celebrated his 50th birthday and became eligible to
join the Champions Tour. But, Freddy isn’t ready for the 50-and-over circuit
just yet. He passed up an invite to play in this month’s AT&T Championship
at Oak Hills Country Club, a Champions Tour event, instead opting to compete in
Justin Timberlake’s Shriners Hosptials for Children Open in Las Vegas. Could
this be Couples audition for the Ryder Cup captaincy in the coming years?
The venue for the 2009 President’s Cup is Harding Park, a municipal course in San Francisco. Opened in 1925 and named after President Warren G. Harding, the layout costs non-member visitors roughly $130-$160 to play and is dominated by towering Monterey Cypress trees and the nearby presence of Lake Merced. In 2005, the course hosted the WGC - American Express Championship, which featured a duel between Woods and John Daly. Woods won in a playoff.
Ten weeks prior to the event, half of Harding Park’s greens suffered fertilizer burn due to operator error, but Superintendent Wayne Kappelman says it was just a minor problem that didn’t seriously threaten to derail the years of preparation leading up to the President’s Cup.
"It has been blown out of proportion a little," Kappelman said. "It was repaired within a week. All 18 greens are in great shape and the whole course is where it should be. Every course has something happen, this was just unfortunate timing. It seems that to dwell on those issues would discredit the three years of preparation and hard work. After everything that has gone into getting ready for this event, it seems rather minor in comparison."
The competition begins Thursday with six alternate-shot matches. Friday features six better-ball matches and five alternate-shot matches. Early action will be televised by the Golf Channel.
Saturday’s morning session will feature five alternate-shot matches, with five better-ball matches to follow in the afternoon. The action will culminate with 12 singles matches on Sunday. Golf Channel will again have the call on Saturday before turning it over to NBC Sports on Sunday afternoon.
Each match is worth one point. In the doubles matches a half-point is awarded to each team in the event of a tie. With 11 alternate-shot matches, 11 better-ball doubles matches and 12 singles matches that represents a total of 34 points. To win the Presidents Cup a team must accumulate a total of 17.5 points.
My Pick for the
President’s Cup:
United States 19
International Team 15
President’s Cup
Rosters
United States
Captain – Fred Couples
Tiger Woods
Phil Mickelson
Steve Stricker
Kenny Perry
Zach Johnson
Stewart Cink
Sean O’Hair
Jim Furyk
Anthony Kim
Justin Leonard
Lucas Glover
Hunter Mahan
International
Captain – Greg Norman
Geoff Ogilvy
Vijay Singh
Camilo Villegas
Retief Goosen
Ernie Els
Angel Cabrera
Mike Weir
Robert Allenby
Y.E. Yang
Tim Clark
Ryo Ishikawa
Adam Scott