Tiger Woods has embraced his role on various international competition teams over the past few years, and in 2019, he’s going to be taking on an even bigger role.
According to a report from The Morning Read‘s Alex Miceli, Woods and Ernie Els have been selected to lead the United States and International Teams, respectively, in the 2019 Presidents Cup, which is to be contested at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne Australia.
G’day, mate! According to reports, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els are set to go head-to-head in the #PresidentsCup again.
This time as captains: https://t.co/k5NMu7uPes pic.twitter.com/bFRQKLkANu
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) March 12, 2018
The Morning Read’s Miceli had more on the appointments.
The Presidents Cup will get a tremendous shot in the arm Tuesday when Tiger Woods and Ernie Els are named captains for the 2019 matches in Melbourne, Australia, sources told Morning Read.
A phone message left by Morning Read with a PGA Tour official who has responsibility for administering the biennial Presidents Cup was not returned.
After the Americans’ 19-11 blowout victory against the Internationals last year at Liberty National, the Tour decided to pull out the big guns to boost competitiveness in a series that the U.S. leads, 10-1-1. Woods and Els offer two of the highest-caliber names in golf. The buzz surrounding Woods, who returned to competition this winter after nearly a year off for back surgery, has ramped up with his co-runner-up finish Sunday at the Valspar Championship.
The Presidents Cup has found tremendous corporate support with Italian carmaker Alfa Romeo, Citibank and Rolex, but the matches lack a competitive balance. The Americans have won seven in a row.
Many golf observers think that the Presidents Cup, unlike its biennial big brother, the Ryder Cup, needs an adrenalin infusion. Woods, an American and the most accomplished and popular golfer in the past 20 years, and Els, a South African and an international star, combine competitive energy and golf stature.
Could Tiger be the first-ever playing captain for the U.S.? ???? https://t.co/93ssdz84I1
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) March 12, 2018
“I think that they’re competitive against each other and they have been competitive against each other for a long time,” said Jack Nicklaus, a four-time Presidents Cup captain, said of the Woods-Els pairing. “So that’s good.”
Captains alone will not change the outcome, a position that former International captains Greg Norman and Nick Price have expressed.
So, expect some type of format change to reduce the number of points from 30 and minimize the American depth, plus perhaps other tweaks for which Els has lobbied. It would give the underdog Internationals a better chance for their first victory since 1998.
With Woods as the captain, has he given up any hope of making the team on his own merit? When asked last month about being named as an assistant to Furyk in this year’s Ryder Cup, Woods hinted at being a player-captain.
The Presidents Cup has not had a playing captain since Hale Irwin went 2-1 for the Americans in a 20-12 U.S. victory in 1994. The late Arnold Palmer was the most recent player-captain in the Ryder Cup, in 1963, when he went 4-2-0 in a 23-9 American victory at East Lake in Atlanta.
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