“Hooks and Slices” will bring you our view on whats happening in the golf world.
It was pretty neat watching the President Cup Captains make their selections for the first round live on the Golf Channel on Wednesday afternoon. Unlike the Ryder Cup where the captains make their lineup and submit it without the other captain knowing, The Presidents Cup has the two captains face to face with one picking his players for the first match and then the other captain gets to match his players against that pairing. It adds a little more excitement to the selections. It’s kind of like picking teams for baseball when you were a kid. Here are Thursday’s foursomes matches:
Mike Weir/Tim Clark (International) vs. Anthony Kim/Mickelson (U.S.)
Adam Scott/Ernie Els (International) vs. Hunter Mahan/Sean O’Hair (U.S.)
Vijay Singh/Robert Allenby (International) vs. Lucas Glover/Stewart Cink (U.S.)
Angel Cabrera/Camilo Villegas (Internationa) vs. Kenny Perry/Zach Johnson (U.S.)
Geoff Ogilvy/Ryo Ishikawa (International) vs. Steve Stricker/Tiger Woods (U.S.)
Retief Goosen/Y.E. Yang (International) vs. Jim Furyk/Justin Leonard (U.S.)
There are some interesting pairings. Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim love playing with each other and Mike Weir and Tim Clark are much shorter hitters than their opponents, they’ll be thirty yards behind them all day.
Greg Norman must be hoping Ernie Els smooth swing and calm demeanor will be the tonic to fix Adam Scott’s slump. Mahan and O’Hair are the best young Americans in golf right now.
Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink pairs this year’s American major winners against three time major winner Vijay Singh and Robert Allenby who has been very consistent this year.
Veteran Angel Cabrera will mentor rookie Camilo Villegas. The two South Americans are paired against two of the tours straightest hitters. Kenny Perry and Zach Johnson will hit it straight and putt lights out all day.
The Geoff Ogilvy/Ryo Ishikawa team almost mirrors the Tiger Woods/Steve Stricker team. All Ogilvy and Stricker do is win, and win quietly. Tiger and Ryo are very much alike, if you take away Tiger’s fourteen majors, forget his 72 tour wins and his one billion dollar bank account, they are pretty even. Ryo will rival Tiger in one category: photographers following him on the course. This should be a fun match to watch.
Retief Goosen won’t have much to say to his partner Y.E Yang all day and Yang probably wouldn’t understand him any way. But they are both major champions that can play awesome golf. The US team of Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard also has major trophies at home and play very solid golf.
Related Articles
