President's Cup - Golf Tournament

[WestCoastJoe]

Fair & Noble

A dramatic decision reached in darkness four years ago branded golf's superior world tourney

Cam Cole, Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, September 22, 2007

Every sport has its moments of pure drama, which don't always coincide with impeccable performance.

Hockey pundits argue that the game has never been played at a higher level than in the best-of-three Canada-Soviet Union finale of the 1987 Canada Cup, but memories of it pale compared to the throbbing emotion generated by the 1972 Summit Series, despite its frequently shoddy play.

Baseball fans have a hard time imagining a more stupendous series of dramatic endings than the Boston Red Sox' fierce seven-game comeback victory over the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, yet it was a series full of errors and blown opportunities.

Golf purists say that Tiger Woods' strafing of Pebble Beach at the 2000 U.S. Open -- where he finished 12-under-par, 15 strokes clear of Ernie Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez -- will never be equalled for virtuosity. And truly, Woods that week was untouchable.

Yet, having witnessed 11 of Woods' 13 major championships, I say without hesitation that, for sheer heart-pounding intensity, none of them compared to an event he played in George, South Africa four years ago -- a competition watched by a negligible TV audience in the U.S., a competition that ended in a tie.

It was the week, in late November of 2003, when two captains' machinations -- Jack Nicklaus's and Gary Player's -- produced a Presidents Cup between the all-stars of the United States and the best non-Europeans from the rest of the world that could not be settled by 34 matches over four days.

It ended in darkness, with each team's designated playoff man -- Woods and South Africa's Ernie Els -- bearing the weight of their teammates, willing heroic putts into holes they could barely see as daylight faded over the Western Cape.

It ended in chaos, after three playoff holes, with the Americans offering a draw, and the Internationals begging to play on, by flashlight if necessary.

Back in North America, the tie was greeted with derision by commentators and sports fans accustomed to seeing their championships decided by a winner and a loser. But in person, the tension was unbearable, the drama delicious, and the conclusion both fair and noble -- qualities long missing from so many sports, but still very much alive in golf.

And, whether you liked the gesture or hated it, that negotiated truce by Nicklaus and Player, forged in heated telephone conversations with PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and announced out on the golf course in darkness illuminated only by TV cameras -- with Els and Woods looking as though they had just been handed a stay of execution by the governor -- was what finally gave the Presidents Cup a little of the profile it deserves.

Beginning next Thursday at Royal Montreal Golf Club, the 2007 Presidents Cup will take one more step out of the shadow of the older, more established Ryder Cup, and may well demonstrate again why -- as a sporting competition, if not yet as an international spectacle and TV ratings monster -- these are the superior matches.

The recognition has been a long time coming, but it got started late, and had a lot of catching up to do.

What the PGA Tour did, in formulating the Presidents Cup in the early 1980s, was open up the ultimate team experience to the rest of the world: The opportunity to face the always-favoured U.S. squad, which the PGA of America had previously afforded only to Europeans (and, before 1979, only to players from Great Britain and Ireland).

Considering how enormous the game has since become in Asia, Australia and South Africa -- and how many world-class players have emerged from those three precincts alone over the two decades of the Cup's existence -- it has proved to be a brilliant piece of foresight, and a bargain as an investment in the global growth of the game.

Never mind that half of the top 20 players in the most recent world golf rankings are members of the International Team -- players from Australia (Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Aaron Baddeley), South Africa (Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Rory Sabbatini, Trevor Immelman), Korea (K.J. Choi), Fiji (Vijay Singh), Argentina (Angel Cabrera) -- compared to just five Americans (albeit four of the top five.) The event's appeal goes beyond star power.

It's the structure of the matches themselves that makes the 23-year-old Presidents Cup better.

The Tour took the Ryder Cup format, identified its three major weaknesses and fixed them:

1. BREATHING SPACE: By spreading the competition out over four days, instead of three, the Presidents Cup allows the first two days' matches to stand on their own, each as an important stage in the buildup to the weekend. The Ryder Cup squeezes two sets of reduced-field matches into each of the first two days, and inevitably the morning matches are rendered incidental to the day's game story, superseded by developments in the afternoon. The Presidents Cup has six alternate-shot matches on Thursday, six four-ball matches on Friday, its only double session on Saturday and, like the Ryder Cup, 12 singles matches Sunday.

2. EVERYBODY PLAYS: An irksome aspect of the Ryder Cup is that players spend two years sweating to qualify for the European and American sides, and then four of a team's 12 members sit out each of the first four sessions, Friday and Saturday. At the 1999 Ryder Cup, three of European captain Mark James's players -- Jean Van de Velde, Andrew Coltart and Jarmo Sandelin -- never did get off the bench until Sunday.

In the Presidents Cup, everybody must play every day, and captains cannot hide their weaknesses. All 24 players tee it up Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday only two players per side sit out each session, but never the same two for both. This means that there are six points available each of the first two days, 10 on Saturday and 12 on Sunday for a total of 34 points, compared to the Ryder Cup's 28. It also means a player cannot be embarrassed by his captain, only by his play.

3. STRATEGY: In the Ryder, prior to each session, the captains submit their prepared lists of pairings or singles in chronological order, and then the teams' lists are placed side-by-side to find out who plays whom. It's a pure guess, and mismatches -- or at least matches with no particular allure to them -- are a distinct possibility.

Put it this way: Tiger Woods' five Ryder Cup opponents on singles Sunday have been Costantino Rocca, Andrew Coltart, Jesper Parnevik (in a meaningless match at the Belfry), Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson. No Faldo, no Monty, no Olazabal, no Sergio, no Padraig Harrington or Darren Clarke last year in Ireland. No magic.

But there are no blind draws in the Presidents Cup. The captains can consciously create, or dodge, matches, one by one.

If Gary Player has the first pick and starts with, say, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, Jack Nicklaus can counter with Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. Then Nicklaus puts out his next pairing, and it's Player's turn to match, and so on down the list. In 2000 and again in 2003, International team captains wanted Mike Weir to play Phil Mickelson whenever possible, and Weir -- alone or in partnership -- won four of the five matches.

In South Africa in '03, Woods beat Els 4&3 in the next-to-last singles match as the Americans rallied to halve the matches 17-17, then the two went out again in that memorable sudden-death tiebreaker.

Such incredible theatre may never happen again -- because all agreed after the tiebreak formula was put to the test that opening the sealed envelope to reveal the names of the two playoff choices, then sending them out to do battle, was an intolerable load to put on anyone, and the wrong way to decide a team competition.

But the stage for all that drama was created by the choices of Nicklaus and Player, who are back as captains for the third and final time next week.

After the chaotic ending in 2003, the two sides settled on a compromise -- both teams share the Presidents Cup in the event of a tie, but the singles matches cannot be halved: each one must be played until one player wins a full point.

The captains could ask for nothing better, in Montreal, than to have to settle -- or not settle -- another draw.

[WestCoastJoe]

I saw that President's Cup that Cam Cole writes about on TV. It was an amazing event.

The playoff as darkness closed in between Tiger Woods and Ernie Els was so exciting for those watching, while it was no doubt excruciating for Woods and Els.

The agreed-upon draw was fair in the circumstances; the players all had arrangements to leave the next day. There were no arrangements for a next-day playoff.

And now it is coming to Montreal ... Cool.

[WestCoastJoe]

International Team rebounds in Montreal

Vijay Singh and Stuart Appelby

Canadian Press

9/28/2007 8:09:00 PM

MONTREAL - Woody Austin fell in a lake and provided the highlight, but it was the International Team that injected some drama into this Presidents Cup.

Vijay Singh and Stuart Appelby handed Tiger Woods his worst-ever match play loss as a professional and the Internationals mounted a stirring comeback on Friday.

They now trail the Americans 7-5 overall - a deficit they would have paid good money for after falling five points behind on the opening day.

"We needed some sanity today," said Appelby. "We got totally cleaned yesterday."

It was Austin that needed a good cleaning after taking a dip in the pond near the 14th green as he tried to play a shot. His caddie Brent Henley urged him to wade into the murky water and the outcome was disastrous.

Austin is a true character and took it in stride.

"Well, I don't think I look any worse than I always do," he said. "(Teammate Scott Verplank) says I smell different, but I think I look as ugly as I always do."

The biggest golf event ever held in Canada was in serious danger of turning ugly, but the International Team didn't allow it to happen.

Singh and Appelby led the charge by playing 14 holes of better ball in 11-under par and dusting Woods and Jim Furyk 5 and 4. Woods had never before been on the losing end of a match that didn't make it to the 15th hole at a Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup.

There was little he could do as his opponents packed a year's worth of amazing shots into a partial round.

Singh holed out from a bunker at the first hole for birdie before making an eagle from the fairway at the par-5 sixth. Appelby later eagled the par-5 12th by sinking a 32-foot putt.

"They chipped in twice and were 11-under through 14 holes - that's pretty good playing," said Woods. "It's not like we were playing bad."

Charles Howell III and Zach Johnson probably felt the same way after losing 3 and 1 to Mike Weir and Ernie Els.

Weir made seven birdies in 17 holes and gave an enthusiastic crowd exactly what it was hoping for. There shouldn't be any questioning his selection as a captain's pick now. Player has Weir paired with Singh for a Saturday morning foursomes match and plans to send him out again for the afternoon fourball.

"I am so pleased that he's played so well these two days," said Player. "Obviously in front of his own people, I cannot tell you how excited I am. He's a dominant man, a dominant man in this series."

You don't have to tell the gallery at Royal Montreal that. Fans sang impromptu renditions of O Canada while Weir walked the fairways on Friday and one even stopped his wife Bricia to have her sign an autograph.

It felt like the atmosphere of a major championship and those aren't ever held in Canada.

"It just kind of gives me goosebumps actually to think about it," said Weir. "I think when I look back on my career that this will be something really special."

How about the largest comeback in Presidents Cup history to top things off? In the six previous matches, no team has ever come from more than a point down at the end of a session.

The International Team has a serious chance to change that stat. After two five-match sessions on Saturday (TSN, 8 a.m. ET), the event will finish with 12 singles matches on Sunday.

In the end, the International Team took 4½ of six points from Friday's matches. It was exactly the kind of showing they needed after an awful start to the event.

"Our morale wasn't very good at the dinner last night," said Singh. "I think we all kind of drank a little too much and tried to drown our sorrows - or some of us did, anyway."

It seemed to work. Every member of the International Team brought up his game and it showed on the scoreboard:

- Angel Cabrera made an 11-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to give he and Retief Goosen a 1-up win over Phil Mickelson and Hunter Mahan.

- Geoff Ogilvy also made birdie at the tough finishing hole to preserve a 1-up win for he and Nick O'Hern over Stewart Cink and Lucas Glover.

- Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini earned a halve with Austin and David Toms and nearly had a full point. Austin birdied the final three holes after falling in the lake. "He's amazing," said U.S. Team captain Jack Nicklaus.

The only American team to win a match outright was Verplank and Steve Stricker. They defeated Adam Scott and K.J. Choi 2 and 1 after being spurred on by watching Austin take a dip.

"I think Woody, his effects were far reaching," said Verplank.

So was a comeback day by the International Team. Without it, there wouldn't have been much intrigue heading to the weekend.

"The matches are alive," said Player. "This is now a match. Very exciting."

[WestCoastJoe]

Weir made seven birdies in 17 holes and gave an enthusiastic crowd exactly what it was hoping for. There shouldn't be any questioning his selection as a captain's pick now. Player has Weir paired with Singh for a Saturday morning foursomes match and plans to send him out again for the afternoon fourball.

"I am so pleased that he's played so well these two days," said Player. "Obviously in front of his own people, I cannot tell you how excited I am. He's a dominant man, a dominant man in this series."

You don't have to tell the gallery at Royal Montreal that. Fans sang impromptu renditions of O Canada while Weir walked the fairways on Friday and one even stopped his wife Bricia to have her sign an autograph.

It felt like the atmosphere of a major championship and those aren't ever held in Canada.

"The matches are alive," said Player. "This is now a match. Very exciting."

Yeaaaaaaa

Go Mike Weir.

Go International Team.

Beat the Yanquis.

Viva Internationales.

[West Coast Blue Fan]

West Coast Joe is slowly turning into Robbie and BC Lion from the Zone for amount of cut and paste threads.

Way to answer your own posts chief.

[WestCoastJoe]

Through 6 holes, Mike Weir is 3 up on Tiger Woods.

I expect Tiger will get it going to challenge Mike before it is over.

Montreal has done a great job hosting this event. The galleries have been excellent.

[WestCoastJoe]

Tiger is down 3 after 10 holes.

Tiger wins 4 of the next 6 holes and takes the lead, 1 up.

Mike wins the 17th hole.

And the 18th to win their match.

The Americans win the Cup.

IMHO, the President's Cup and the Ryder Cup are the greatest events in golf.

Well done, Montreal.

Great stuff for golf fans.