Couples makes it official: Tiger's on team
Tiger Woods on the 14th hole during the first round of the 93rd PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Georgia. (Aug. 11, 2011) Credit: Getty
Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler and others here at The Barclays who aren’t automatically on the U.S. Presidents Cup team are shooting at only one open wild card spot. Fred Couples has two captains picks and he announced Thursday that he already has decided on one of them. Tiger Woods has been told he’s on the team.
Couples, who won the Senior Players championship at Westchester Country Club Sunday, said at the Boeing Classic in his native Washington yesterday that he has told Woods about having made the team. At Westchester, Couples had hedged his bet a little, saying Woods needs to play more before the November Presidents Cup in Australia. Woods said on his website this week that he might play in one of the PGA Tour’s Fall Series events.
The fact that Woods said he “might” almost surely means he will. That evidently was good enough for Couples.
And that leaves one spot open for the likes of Bradley, the PGA Champion (and St. John’s grad and Wheatley Hills member), unless he can earn enough points during the rest of the FedEx Cup playoffs to make it on his own.
Phil Mickelson, in his pre-Barclays news conference Wednesday, urged Couples to make Bradley the first pick because Bradley has arguably had the best year of any American golfer. Bradley is the only U.S. player to have won a major in 2011.
In any event, it is interesting that the speculation about the U.S. Presidents Cup team is gaining more interest than the Presidents Cup itself usually does. The event, matching the U.S. vs. The World, is not as widely followed as the Ryder Cup, which pits the U.S. vs. Europe. The two series are held on alternate years.
