Woods perfect, U.S. wins President Cup

Mike Dudurich

Posted 2009-10-11

Sometimes, things are almost too good to be true.

I mean, seriously. The world’s best player, who took a long time to warm up to these team championships, providing the Presidents Cup-winning point by avenging an embarrassing PGA Championship loss.

And, oh yeah, that win over Korea’s Y.E. Yang capped a perfect 5-0 week for Tiger Woods. Big deal, you say?

Well, only Mark O’Meara and Shigeki Maruyama have accomplished that feat in the first seven years of the Presidents Cup.

“Did it really?” Woods said, when told by NBC Sports that his point clinched the cup. “I was trying to get my point. I was 5 up trying to make it 6. I didn’t look at any boards. I just kept my head down.”

The International team put up a valiant fight for four days, but succumbed to a much deeper and more talented U.S. team (five of the top 10 players in the world wore red, white and blue), 19 ½-14 ½.

Tim Clark was very good for the Internationals. Angel Cabrera and Geoff Ogilvy were not very good.

For the Americans, Woods was obviously very good. Steve Stricker, who ironically lost to Ogilvy in the Sunday singles, finished 4-1.

Phil Mickelson played well, and revealed Sunday night that his wife, Amy, had joined him for the weekend in San Francisco. Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer in May and, after having surgery, has been receiving treatment since.

And while the Presidents Cup doesn’t have the history or the intensity (and maybe that’s not a bad thing), the event does continue to create special moments. On the 18th green of the match between Vijay Singh and Lucas Glover, Singh missed an eagle putt that would have won the match and given him a 3-0-2 record.

But Singh instead conceded Glover’s 7-foot putt for birdie, meaning the match ended in a halve. Glover was one of the U.S. players who didn’t play well and was 0-3 coming into that match.

“He would have made it anyway,” Singh said.

As usual, however, the focal point of the event was Woods, especially as he went mano-a-mano against Yang. He got off to a slow start, but despite hitting a couple wayward Tiger bombs, he hammered Yang this time.

“He got me there, and I figured I could get him here,” Woods said. “It certainly was not exactly the same atmosphere, but then it still was an important point.”

The next time teams will gather for a Presidents Cup meeting will be in 2001 at Royal Melbourne in Australia. Even though he was the losing captain, Aussie Greg Norman is expected to be the no-brainer choice to be at the helm on his home soil.

“I think if you look back over the series of the last four days, and the five competitive rounds of golf, I think the Americans probably just out-putted us a little bit; from a ball-striking perspective I think my guys stacked up shot for shot except just getting the ball in the hole a little bit quicker,” Norman said.

“The format is very much indicative of that type of need, to get the ball in the hole quicker, but at the end of the day, I know I'm proud of my guys and I know I'm very, very proud of the event and to leave here we should hold our heads high, but also leave here knowing that we can work on a few things to make sure that we have a good chance of winning The Presidents Cup in 2011.”

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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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