U.S. TEAM WINS PRESIDENTS CUP

By mustang6560 on 11/21/11

Tiger Woods may have technically clinched the final point for the U.S. Team, but Jim Furyk is the player who deserves to be recognized for his outstanding performance Down Under. He is only the fifth player in the history of the biennial event to go a perfect 5-0. His five victories accounted for over 25 percent of the total number of points the Americans won.

Jim teamed up with Phil Mickelson for the first three team matches and beat Retief Goosen and Robert Allenby, Adam Scott and K.T. Kim and Aaron Baddeley and Jason Day, respectively. In the Saturday afternoon four-ball match, Jim played alongside Nick Watney against Adam Scott and Ernie Els. He capped off his week of stellar play against Ernie Els in his single match Sunday.

Jim struggled for the better part of 2011 after coming off a career year in 2010 with three wins on the PGA Tour including the FedExCup, however he played like the seasoned pro he really is all week at Royal Melbourne. He acknowledged that Phil helped him get his game back on track.

I have a feeling he probably asked to play with me because I felt like he could get a lot out of me; meaning that we have known each other for a long time, we are good friends, and he's got a great leadership quality in these events, and you know, I struggled this year and he kind of took me under his wing and kind of boosted my confidence.

The win is the seventh for the Americans and the second for captain Fred Couples, who is now undefeated as captain. I hope Freddie agrees to captain again in the future because clearly he knows what he’s doing. The media gave him a hard time for selecting Tiger with one of his two captain’s picks, but if you look at the records of all the captain’s picks, Tiger performed the best. He won as many matches as Bill Haas, Aaron Baddeley and Robert Allenby combined. Poor Robert Allenby pulled an opposite of Jim Furyk and put up an "0"-fer to become only the second captain’s pick in the history of the Presidents Cup to go win less. The only thing I think Freddie did wrong with picking Tiger was the fact he announced it so far in advance. He probably should have waited until both captains announced their picks instead of letting the cat out of the bag a month ahead of time.

All in all, the Presidents Cup provided some compelling off season golf. I'm glad the event is returning stateside in 2013 so it will be easier to follow.



photo by Keith Allison