Presidents Cup Thoughts

With the Presidents Cup in the books for 2009, I thought I would scribble a few thoughts after watching pretty much every shot during Sunday’s singles matches.
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- Captain Fred Couples could not have asked for more out of his opening groups. Hunter Mahan fought hard after a disastrous start, and ended up winning 2 & 1 over Camillo Villegas. Follow that up with the second pairing resulting in a 4 & 3 win courtesy of Stewart Cink over Adam Scott, and the U.S. was well on their way to victory very ealry on Sunday.

- While Tiger took much of the media’s attention on Sunday, it cannot be understated how well Anthony Kim and Sean O’Hair played on Sunday. Kim dominated red-hot Robert Allenby 5 & 3, while O’Hair trounced Ernie Els 6 & 4.

- Ryo Ishikawa is most certainly a player to watch. NBC did a nice job of giving him quite a bit of airtime, and I thought he even deserved more of it. He is a good ball striker, and is an incredible putter. I may do a bit of research on him and write up a future post. One of the NBC guys said something about how Tiger said that Ryo is far more advanced than he was at age 18, and said he has many more tools in his arsenal. 

- The actual clinching of the event was pretty awkward, in that it appears Tiger had no idea, and Captain Couples may or may not have told Tiger that his putt had just clinched the event. One of the obvious downsides to this format is that there is a certain likelihood that there will not be a dramatic closure to the event -- no big put on the 72nd hole, but rather an incidental putt on the 13th when many were unaware of its consequences.

- I think (from my seat on the couch) that Harding Park played a great host to the world’s best. The course seemed fairly challenging, yet also had holes which challenged the players to play aggressively with several short par 4s. I am lucky enough to have family in the SF area, and playing a round at Harding Park is definitely on the “must-do” list for our next trip out west.

- The big three for the U.S. team, Woods, Stricker, and Mickelson, came through time and time again, collectively compiling a 13-1-1 record. The team of Stricker and Woods tallied a perfect 4-0 record, dominating whichever pair International captain Greg Norman threw at them.

- I don’t often comment on TV coverage, as I feel there are plenty out there who do so, but I really enjoyed the Azinger/Faldo team on the Golf Channel’s coverage Thursday and Friday. Their immediate past experience as Ryder Cup captains provided them with an excellent vantage point to provide analysis into captain decisions and such.

- Speaking of Azinger, I was shocked by his comment that Corey Pavin had not approached him whatsoever with regard to the Ryder Cup. Pavin is of course the American captain for the 2010 Ryder Cup, and it would be downright foolish not to gleam any bit of knowledge he can from Zinger, the architect of the American victory in Kentucky last fall. Let’s hope Pavin makes that call soon.

- I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the American team room...between all the personalities on that team, toss in Couples and Jordan, and it most certainly would have made for a good time.