Presidents Cup: A San Francisco treat?
Mike Dudurich
Posted 2009-09-30
With the last big stroke play tournament in their rear-view mirrors, the elite players in the world turn their attention to San Francisco’s Harding Park Golf Course and the eighth playing of the Presidents Cup.
The United States vs. the World. Very much like the much-longer running Ryder Cup, although the opponent isn’t just Great Britain and Ireland.
The Presidents Cup continues to work at finding its niche in the world of professional golf and will do just that if it continues to be a very competitive event and creates fantastic finishes as two of the last three have been.
But just as the effort to push the Players Championship into the status of golf’s fifth major is silly and futile, trying to push the Presidents Cup onto the same level as the Ryder Cup won’t work, either. The competition is what it is: an every-other-year team event, played in Ryder Cup off years, another chance for fans to see the best players in the world compete.
The first two Presidents Cups were contested at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Prince Georges County, West Virginia and the U.S. recorded blowout and squeaker wins before the show went on the road to Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Victoria, Australia in 1998.
The U.S. found out then that it was much more fun playing at home than on the road, as the Internationals spanked them, 20 ½-11 ½.
One of the great moments in the brief history of the event occurred in 2003 when it was played at The Links at Fancourt Hotel and Country Club Estate in George, South Africa. It was originally scheduled to be played in November of 2002, but it was moved back one year after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
At the end of regulation, the teams were tied at 17. Tiger Woods and Ernie Els were designated to represent their teams in a sudden-death playoff. After three holes, darkness was enveloping the area. Team captains Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, who stressed sportsmanship and camaraderie dominate the proceedings, decided that the Cup should be shared.
An interesting part of these team, play-for-your-country events is how attitudes of players have changed over the course of time regarding being on these teams. For years, the greatest names in golf were absolutely thrilled and honored to be named to the Ryder Cup.
Today’s players have not all shared that enthusiasm, going so far at times to question why they didn’t get to share in the considerable revenues created by the Ryder Cup, with Tiger Woods and David Duval leading the quest in 1999. The subject eventually melted away after some closed-door meetings, but then there was the matter of Hunter Mahan shooting his mouth off prior to the 2006 Ryder Cup.
Mahan, a rookie on that team, said the following in an interview with Golf magazine:
"The whole week is extremely long," he said. "You've got dinners every night – not little dinners but huge, massive dinners. I know, as players, that's the last thing we want to do. You're just a slave that week."
Some pretty insightful stuff from a guy who was a questionable selection at best and had only gotten as close to the Ryder Cup as his television set up until 2008.
And now fast forward to this year and the Presidents Cup, Oct. 6-11.
While the United States team was pretty much cut and dried – with only a disappointing Anthony Kim and an unproductive Mahan being the only soft spots – things were much more spicy for the Internationals.
For starters, the roster is filled with players who did not perform well in 2009, guys like Vijay Singh, Mike Weir, Ernie Els. And then, when it came time to name his captain’s picks, Greg Norman, really stirred the pot.
Instead of choosing a hard-nosed and tough veteran like Rory Sabbatini, Norman instead took fellow countryman, Adam Scott. The point could possibly be debated, but it seems to me that no player was more disappointing in 2009 than Scott.
He was ranked third in the world a year ago, but comes into the Presidents Cup at No. 53. He’s played on three previous Presidents Cups and has a 7-6-2 record in those. Norman obviously is banking on that experience, but is also setting himself up to be vilified should Scott revert to this year’s form.
If nothing else, this will be an interesting competition. Norman and U.S. captain Fred Couples love to have fun, but also are fierce competitors. The event will be played for the first time on a municipal course, albeit one that’s been transformed into a tournament-worthy municipal.
And the event also holds the possibility of Woods and Y.E. Yang, the Korean who took the PGA Championship from Woods in August, facing each other in the singles competition.
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About Mike...
As a sports writer for over 35 years, Mike Dudurich has seen a lot of great things, covered spectacular events, but his passion is, and has been golf.
He recently ended a 29-year career at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and will now be a frequent contributor on GolfGearReview.com.
Mike hosts a weekly golf radio show on 1250 ESPN in Pittsburgh from the beginning of April through the end of August.
The show airs Saturdays from 8-9 a.m. and can be heard online at http://stations.espn.go.com/stations/espnradio1250/show?showId=insidepghgolf - Listen to Mike Here!.
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