The PGA Tour announced yesterday that Greg Norman and Fred Couples will be captains for the 2009 Presidents Cup matches that will be played at Harding Park in San Francisco next year. Their selection ends the reign of Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.
Norman, who will lead the international team, played on three President Cup teams (1996, 1998, 2000) and compiled a 7-6-1 record. He made the 1994 team but did not play due to an injury.
The easygoing Couples has been a stalwart of the American team with an overall record of 9-5-2 on the 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2005 teams. Couples clinched the very first Presidents Cup for the Americans in 1994 when he made a 35-foot birdie putt after hitting the green from a fairway bunker. Three years ago, Couples drained a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to defeat Vijay Singh.
Couples, who harbored aspirations to be captain of a U.S. Ryder Cup team, is a good fit for the Presidents Cup, which is less formal and stuffy than the Ryder Cup. In fact, Couples recently joked that he would appoint Michael Jordan and Robin Williams as assistant captains because Jordan could tell great stories and Williams could tell great jokes.
Norman’s selection was a surprise and viewed as an attempt by PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem to make peace with the outspoken Aussie. Norman had pressed for a world golf tour similar to what Finchem installed. He also has been critical of the tour’s management. Perhaps all will be forgiven by the time they tee off in San Francisco.
Hitting range balls while wondering whatever happened to Rex Caldwell.
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- Mr. Fairway
- Mr. Fairway’s love affair with the game of golf began in junior high. He once made his living as a journalist covering high school sports, cops and robbers and politics. Today, Mr. Fairway is a public relations consultant and a widely-published freelance golf writer. His current USGA handicap index is 9.3 and he averages 50-plus rounds a year.