Presidential Cup sweats at Woods & # 039; Status
Tiger Woods is still in the mix for Royal Melbourne. Image: Getty
President & # 39; s Head, Matt Kamienski, says this year's event will be 30 percent larger than it was last time it came to Melbourne in 2011, but he is still unclear about Tiger Woods as a player will enter the scene.
Kamienski, vice president and executive director of the Presidential Cup, waits just like everyone else with bated breath to hear if Woods will make a third Royal Melbourne performance as a player in the event, after the 1998 and 2011 versions in Melbourne. He is already determined to be the American captain, regardless
Crowds and television rankings would undoubtedly rise when the 15-time big champion is playing, because nobody moves the needle like Tiger. But until Woods names the picks of his four captains for the American team on November 8, nobody will know.
"I know for sure that Tiger & # 39; s goal from the start when he became captain was a playing captain," Kamienski told today's Golf Australia podcast Inside The Ropes. "He asked the question:" Has there been a captain? "He discovered that Hale Irwin did it the first year (1994) and he said:" You know that I also want to become a captain ".
"I know that goal hasn't changed. He wanted to earn it, I know he wanted to be in the top eight. It depends on how he feels healthy."
Will he? Or not?
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Kamienski said the other American players wanted Woods to play. "I should tell everyone in that American team (want him). The greatest golfer of this generation, the one who started most of those guys in that team playing golf because they want him to play on that team. They want that chance to to play with Tiger Woods. They are enthusiastic about him as a captain, but they will force him to play. "
The odds at this time are favorable for Woods who plays on top of the role of his captain. He is still in ninth place in the world and is the reigning Masters champion, so he hardly needs to justify his own selection – even when the circumstances are a bit uncomfortable.
Woods, together with the international captain Ernie Els, appoints four picks from the captain to join the eight players from each team who automatically qualified.
Among those hoping to be included on the American side are veterans Phil Mickelson, former world number 1 Jordan Spieth and world number 13 Tony Finau as well as US Open champion Gary Woodland.
The favorites to earn the last places in the international team are Jason Day in Australia and Sungjae Im in South Korea. There are already three Australians in the international team: Marc Leishman, Adam Scott and Cameron Smith.
The Presidential Cup will be in Royal Melbourne from 12 December. Kamienski said the crowd could reach 35,000 on tournament days, with the large, old course now smoothing itself out now that winter is over.
"It looks phenomenal," he said. “That golf course came out really well in the winter and it is only getting better. We have just started our build this week, and we are on the way. "