President’s Cup Preview
Whilst perhaps not viewed with quite the same intensity and fervours as the Ryder Cup, the President’s Cup has become an intrinsic part of the golfing landscape. The biennial event makes its way to Melbourne for the second time, after the Royal Melbourne Golf Club hosted the event in 1998. Can the United States continue on its winning way, or can the International Team repeat the deeds of ’98 and capture the event for just the second time?
Fred Couples and Greg Norman will be returning as captains of the United States and International Teams after they took on the duties for the 2009 edition of the tournament.
The itinerary
The event will take place over four days, commencing on Thursday November 17 with the 12 players from each team competing in 6 foursome matches. For the uninitiated, foursomes can best be described as an ‘alternate shot’ event. Teams of 2 players essentially share one ball – one player tees off, their partner hits the second shot, the first player hits the third shot, and so on in this alternating pattern until the ball is holed. How the name ‘foursomes’ was derived for such a game is beyond me, but anyway…
On the Friday, the 12 players from each team competing in 6 four-ball matches. A four-ball event is also played in teams of 2, only this time each player hits their own ball the whole time (as if playing in a singles game), but the best of the 2 players’ scores is recorded as the ‘team’ score for the hole. For example, if one player makes a par and their partner makes a birdie, the team is recorded as making a birdie (as a consequence, team scores for such an event are typically a long way under par). Again, the ‘four-ball’ name is completely counterintuitive – I love a lot of things about golf, but ridiculous naming conventions are not among them.
On the Saturday, 10 of the 12 players from each team will compete in 5 foursomes matches in the morning, with 10 of the 12 players from each team competing in 5 four-ball matches in the afternoon. As 2 players per team are rested in the morning and a further 2 rested in the afternoon, the strategy of the two captains becomes extremely important here.
On the Sunday, the event concludes with 12 singles matches. The captain of a team trailing significantly after Saturday’s play will often send their best players out early on the Sunday in order to try and bridge the gap – it is little use for the best players to win their matches after the Cup has already been decided.
Each match is worth one point to the winning team, with half a point allotted to each team in the event of a tie after 18 holes. With a total of 34 matches across the 4 days, the first team to reach 17.5 points is the winner.
The course
Royal Melbourne’s Composite course (comprising 12 holes from Royal Melbourne West and 6 holes from Royal Melbourne East) will host the event. Ranked one of the world’s premier courses, it offers a tantalising array of ‘risk and reward’ trade-off decisions for the golfer.
Having had the privilege of playing Royal Melbourne West in 1999, I can vouch for the volume of options available to a player on many holes. Dog-legs are cleverly positioned so as to invite bold drives that can be handsomely rewarded or severely punished, dependent on the quality of the stroke. For the more conservative player, safer tee shots are offered, but more challenging approach shots to the greens are the price to be paid.
The course also offers up a number of outstanding short holes, none more so than the one-two punch of holes number 5 and 6 on this particular composite layout.
The 5th hole measures a mere 135 metres but a narrow green carrying severe undulations and a swarm of bunkers ready to swallow a errant tee shot, correct club selection and a precise swing are paramount.
The 6th hole is my personal favourite. A 285-metre par 4 that bends gently to the left, it offers the ultimate reward for a bold and straight tee shot. However, the left side (over which a drive to the green must carry) is comprised of a cavernous bunker. With the green being small and the best angle of attack being from the right side of the fairway, a miss to the left can leave a more treacherous second shot than one faced by players laying up to the right side of the fairway. In four-ball action in particular, expect to see a number of players go for broke at this hole.
Moulded along similar lines to many a links course (aided in part by the sandbelt nature of the land on which it was built), the course does lend itself to the ball being played along the ground in a similar vein to that of many British Open courses, and far more than typically occurs in the U.S. In the ordinary course of events this would be a decided advantage for the International Team, but recent Melbourne weather will have softened the course to some degree, thus reducing some of the ‘home course’ effect.
The History – Past results of the President’s Cup (6 wins to the United States, 1 to the International Team, 1 tie)
2009 – U.S. won 19.5 -14.5 (Harding Park Golf Course, San Francisco, USA)
2007 – U.S. won 19.5 -14.5 (The Royal Montreal Golf Club, Montreal, Canada)
2005 – U.S. won 18.5 – 15.5 (Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Virginia, USA)
2003 – Tied 17-17 (The Links at Fancourt Hotel and Country Club Estate, George, South Africa)
2000 – U.S. won 21.5 – 10.5 (Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Virginia, USA)
1998 – International Team won 20.5 – 11.5 (Royal Melbourne Golf Club, Melbourne, Australia)
1996 – U.S. won 16.5 – 15.5 (Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Virginia, USA)
1994 – U.S. won 20 – 12 (Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Virginia, USA)
*Note: Only 32 matches were played in each tournament prior to 2003, with 34 matches played each since that time.
Assessment: If you’re a fan of the International Team, don’t be too disheartened about their prospects this week. While the Americans are undefeated in 5 encounters at home, the 3 occasions where the event has headed abroad have resulted in a win for each side and a tie in 2003.
Those of us with longer memories have fond memories of the unheralded Kiwi duo of Frank Nobilo and Greg Turner taking it to the Americans in 1998 at this course. Or Craig Parry chipping in when teamed with Shigeki Maruyama (a man well known for his love of cheeseburgers and fear of thunder), as one of the most rotund pairings in the history of the event chalked up another point for the home team. Here’s hoping that history repeats itself this week.
The player line-ups
(Note: OWGR = Official Golf Word Ranking, as at November 8. President’s Cup records are listed on the basis on wins-losses-halved matches. For example, Adam Scott has won 8 President’s Cup matches, lost 10 and halved 2).
International Team
Captain: Greg Norman
Captain's Assistants: Frank Nobilo, Tim Clark
1 – Jason Day (OWGR No. 7, President’s Cup debut)
2 – Adam Scott (OWGR No. 8, 8-10-2 record)
3 – Charl Schwartzel (OWGR No. 13, debut)
4 – K.J. Choi (OWGR No. 15, 3-6-0 record)
5 – Kyung-tae Kim (OWGR No. 24, debut)
6 – Retief Goosen (OWGR No. 47, 11-10-3 record)
7 – Geoff Ogilvy (OWGR No. 41, 4-5-0 record)
8 – Ernie Els (OWGR No. 48, 16-12-2 record)
9 – Y.E. Yang (OWGR No. 42, 2-2-1 record)
10 – Ryo Ishikawa (OWGR No. 49, 3-2-0 record)
Captain’s Pick – Robert Allenby (OWGR No. 65, 8-13-3 record)
Captain’s Pick – Aaron Baddeley (OWGR No. 50, debut)
United States
Captain: Fred Couples
Captain's Assistants: Jay Haas, John Cook
1 – Matt Kuchar (OWGR No. 9, debut)
2 – Steve Stricker (OWGR No. 6, 9-6-0 record)
3 – Dustin Johnson (OWGR No. 5, debut)
4 – Webb Simpson (OWGR No. 10, debut)
5 – Nick Watney (OWGR No. 12, debut)
6 – Phil Mickelson (OWGR No. 11, 15-13-10 record)
7 – Bubba Watson (OWGR No. 17, debut)
8 – David Toms (OWGR No. 21, 6-7-1 record)
9 – Hunter Mahan (OWGR No. 19, 4-4-1 record)
10 – Jim Furyk (OWGR No. 39, 15-10-3 record)
Captain’s Pick – Bill Haas (OWGR No. 22, debut)
Captain’s Pick – Tiger Woods (OWGR No. 58, 18-11-1 record)
Assessment: The Americans have a substantial edge in terms of overall talent and in particular, form in 2011.
Only 2 of their players are ranked outside the top 22 in the world, and those 2 players (Furyk and Woods) have a combined 33 President’s Cup match victories to their name. There has been significant turnover in their squad with 6 debutants (and Keegan Bradley unlucky not to make it 7), but these players have all shown strong 2011 form and deserves their places. Wisely, a number of the team played in the Australian Open at The Lakes last week, with Woods and Watney in particular playing well. Expect Couples to bring the formidable duo of Stricker and Woods back together and in the four-ball matches, frequently team up a long bomber (such as Watson, Johnson and Simpson) with a steadier player (such as Kuchar, Toms or Furyk).
For the International Team the outlook is far less rosy. While Day and Scott (who seemingly reclaimed his mojo in 2011 after moving to the longer putter) have been in tremendous form this year, the same cannot be said of many others. 7 players are ranked outside the top 40 in the world while Kim’s ranking of 24 has been aided substantially by performances in Asia, with similar form not yet replicated elsewhere in the world.
The prognosis
To be honest, it doesn’t look great for the Internationals, who presently have nothing like the depth that the Europeans do when taking on the U.S. in the Ryder Cup. Had this event been played in U.S., the Internationals would be massive outsiders.
As it stands, I find it difficult to find a compelling rationale for tipping them other than (a) the potential for a repeat of 1998 on a type of course American golfers are rarely exposed to; and (b) sheer parochialism. Truth be told, those aren’t great reasons for tipping against the superior side.
Prediction: United States 18 points, International Team 16
Thanks to Stephen Dunn/Getty Images North America for use of the photo
