TERRE HAUTE — Just when we thought golf season was over, and it was time to concentrate on football, we must awaken from our naps, because there’s going to be some exciting golf for us to watch next weekend. The President’s Cup will run from Oct. 6-11 at Harding Park in San Francisco.
The President’s Cup was created to give the world’s best non-European players an opportunity to compete in international team match-play competition. It made sense, since the Ryder Cup, pitting Europeans against Americans, had become such a popular television event, and there were so many good golfers from non-European countries playing professional golf. This year’s International team has players from Australia, Fiji, Columbia, South Africa, Argentina, Canada, South Korea and Japan.
The first event was held in 1994 and was to be held biannually, however, the 2002 Cup was postponed until the following year, due to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. , and it has been on the odd year ever since. The tradition is that the head of state of the country hosting the event serves as honorary chairman. This year President Obama has accepted that honor.
The captain of the U.S. team is Fred Couples, and he has named as his assistants Jay Haas and Michael Jordan — yes, THAT Michael Jordan! Jordan won’t be able to say much to the players about their golf games, but he is a golf nut, and he knows a few things about winning.
The captain of the International team is Greg Norman, with Fred Nobilo as his assistant. With Couples and Norman at the helm of each team, the President’s Cup is sure to produce antics, laughs, and lots of celebrity cameos. Both men spoke of their biggest challenge, outside of making the captain’s picks, as the clothing issue. Greg has to find clothing styles that fit both Camilo Villegas and Vijay Singh, and that’s a big difference in size and style!
The President’s Cup pits a strong U.S. team, selected on the basis of official earnings from the beginning of the 2008 season, against another strong International team. The International team was selected on the basis of Official World Golf Rankings.
The U.S. team is made up of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Kenny Perry, Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink , Sean O’Hair, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard and Captain Couples’ picks Hunter Mahan and Lucas Glover.
The International team consists of Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera, Mike Weir, Robert Allenby, Y.E. Yang, Tim Clark and Captain Norman’s picks Adam Scott and Ryo Ishikawa.
The schedule of The President’s Cup is much like the Ryder Cup. Practice rounds, open to the public, will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday. Opening ceremonies, which will be televised live on the Golf Channel, will be at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. The first round of competition, six matches of foursomes, will begin at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
Foursomes are matches where two play against two, with partners alternating shots from tee to green. Each team member will be designated to tee off on either odd or even holes for the round.
The second round will begin at 10:55 a.m. Friday morning, for six matches of four-ball. Four-ball is what is commonly referred to as “best-ball” or “better-ball”. Two teammates play their own ball against the other twosome’s two balls, with the best score of the four winning the hole. Both the first and second rounds will be televised on the Golf Channel.
The third round of competition begins at 7:35 a.m. on Saturday morning. Television coverage will begin at 8 PST on NBC, and stay with it until 6 p.m. There will be five matches of foursomes, expecting to finish around 11:50. The first tee time for the fourth round is at 12:05. The fourth round is five matches of four-ball competition.
The final round of President’s Cup competition will begin Sunday morning at 9:25 a.m., with NBC’s coverage beginning at 9, with 12 singles matches. I’m sure there will be plenty of highlights to show in those 25 minutes prior to the first group’s tee time.
Quote of the Day — “We have had a lot of laughs about a lot of things, most of them he’s laughing at me. But I’ll get the last laugh once he gets there and I start telling him what he’s got to do and how to do it.” — Fred Couples, talking about Tiger Woods on the U.S. President’s Cup team.
Congratulations! — To Chris Cassell for winning the Terre Haute Men’s City Championship and to Rachel Welker for qualifying for another IHSAA girls state golf tournament.
On & Off the Course
On and Off the Course: President's Cup should be entertaining
- On & Off the Course
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Death Notice: Feb. 7, 2013
• Gary R. Wright
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Donna Lynn Strahla Bown
Donna Lynn Strahla Bown passed away early Friday morning, Jan. 25, 2013, with her children by her side.
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‘The Match’ pitting amateurs vs. pros recalled 62 years later
Quote of the Day: “I play golf with friends sometimes, but there are never friendly games.” — Ben Hogan.
Bubba Watson has had a busy fall. Not only did he play all the way to the final round of the FedEx Championships, and in the Ryder Cup, he also played in an event commemorating a very famous match played at Cypress Point in 1956, pitting two of the greatest golf pros at the time against two of the best amateurs.
Come to think of it, all four were some of the best golfers of all time. This year’s event was celebrating The First Tee’s exceeding $100 million in pledges to reach 10 million new young people. It wasn’t televised and kept very quiet; only 225 people were in the gallery.
One of the people in the gallery was Mark Frost, the author of a book titled “The Match,” which is about that match played 62 years ago that was re-enacted in modern terms last week. The pros in 1956 were Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson and the amateurs were Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward. It was supposed to have been a private affair, built around a wager by two millionaires, George Coleman and Eddie Lowery. -
ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf from the wrong side of the brain
Imagine this scenario: a woman, small in stature (possibly freckled), walks into a hospital emergency room and says, “I have an emergency, I need a doctor quickly!” The admitting nurse, ever trying to be helpful, asks what the emergency is.
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Farmers looking at widely varying yields
Combines will roll through fields this weekend, bringing in the harvest from a summer with nearly no rain.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf debut in London would have been nice
As the Olympics get underway in London this weekend, I was thinking it’s too bad that the Olympic committee decided too late to add golf as one of the sports for this event; instead it will be added to the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Getting to Hoosier country’s best golfing venue part of the fun
If you are looking for Indiana’s premier golfing destination, then you should look no further than French Lick.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Indiana's Pete Dye courses worth the drive
You’ve probably heard of the Robert Trent Jones Golf trail throughout Alabama, but you might not be aware that Indiana has its own “Pete Dye Golf Trail” comprised of seven courses.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fathers typically a big influence on golfing sons
Some events fall naturally into place around holidays. The Fourth of July always falls somewhere during Wimbledon, giving all of the Yanks in attendance something to be boisterous about, to the chagrin of their hosts; The Masters often, but not always, ends on Easter Sunday, which is fitting since golfers find it such a reverent occasion.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Memorial just one of many visions of Jack Nicklaus
When Jack Nicklaus was a young man, the golfer he most admired was Bob Jones.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: With some tricky rules, golf is not a walk in the park
Golf is not a casual sport, even though it has a term called “casual water.”
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On and off the course: Sycamores seeded sixth heading into MVC golf tourney
It wasn’t too long ago that Indiana State University didn’t even have a women’s golf team.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: A hard ticket to come by
This is the weekend of the Masters Tournament, the first of the four major tournaments.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Some things on golf course are worse than steep putts
It’s not often that anything gets more scary on a golf course than a steep downhill putt, but on some courses around the world, things a little more on the supernatural side might give you a bigger fright!
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The shot heard round the world
I don’t know if the Golf Channel will show a “Best Shots of 2011” highlight reel, much like ESPN does for baseball or football.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Red, White and Blue visits the Isle of Green
In 2006, the Ryder Cup was held in Ireland at The K Club in County Kildare.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Fall may be coming but golf season is far from over
Once the major tournaments are over with, what’s there to look forward to in the world of golf?
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Golf… simplified!
Golf is not a simple game. A golf course is made up of 18 holes, all different. There are par-3s, par-4s and par-5s; they all vary in length and elevation, and each has its own challenges. There can be water hazards, trees, sand bunkers, tall grass, hills, valleys — and then, if that’s not enough, there’s probably wind too.
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On and Off the Course: Northern Ireland builds on golf history
Northern Ireland is only about 5,452 square miles in area and has a population about the same as West Virginia, which is about 1,880,344.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Women’s Open at the Broadmoor
This is the weekend of the U.S. Women’s Open, and this year it’s being played at The Broadmoor, East Course, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: The Fort Golf Course: A Walk in the Park…
Indiana has some pretty spectacular state parks, but one of them gives you the ability to “spoil a good walk” by chasing a little white ball.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Father’s Day is a good day for golfers
Most people consider the time around Christmas to be the gift-buying season.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Playing with lead a difficult task
As exciting as last week’s Masters was, with six players being tied for the lead at one point on Sunday, it was very difficult watching Rory McIlroy fall apart to shoot an 80.
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ON AND OFF THE COURSE: Masters a rite of spring
This is Masters weekend, the grand kickoff to the golf season for a lot of golfers. Sure, there have been tournaments on TV, because the professionals have been playing in Hawaii, California, Texas, Dubai, and other areas not so affected by winter as we are here in the Midwest, but to me, watching The Masters is a rite of spring.
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ON THE OFF THE COURSE: Some history on the Ryder Cup
I fell asleep in way too many history classes to ever qualify as a history buff. However, since I have grown up a bit (not much), I enjoy learning about all kinds of history. I often have questions about how something began, or how something came to be.
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On and Off the Course: Purdue's Kampen Course a gem in Indiana's rough
About a month ago, Indiana was still heavily mired in heat and humidity, making outdoor activities such as golf less appealing than usual. At that time it felt like the repressive heat would never go away, it would never rain again, and all of the grass was just going to continue to wither and die. And the month prior to that we kept getting rained out of golf events!
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On and Off the Course: Successful golfers know ... focus is the key
I have a good friend who coached his daughter’s basketball team for a number of years, and told me that his theme with the girls was always “focus”, until it was ingrained in their brains. Now when they play high school ball, if they hear “focus” yelled from the stands, they know the source.
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On and Off the Course: Technology adds even more fun to the course
You’ve hit a drive into some brush in an area marked as a hazard, but you can’t find the ball to prove it is there. And no one actually witnessed it go in the hazard. You just think that’s where it probably is. What is the rule for this situation?
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On and Off the Course: Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic a worthwhile charity event
On Monday, I worked as a volunteer for the Anthony Gonzalez First Tee Classic, Golf Tournament and Auction at Eagle Creek Golf Course in Indianapolis. It was an absolutely beautiful day, with clear blue skies, just a few wispy clouds here and there and a high temperature of about 76 degrees.
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On and Off the Course: Trends show golf in decline
You don’t have to watch the news or read the paper to understand that America is struggling on the economic front. The evidence can be witnessed at the local golf course.
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