European Ryder Cup captain, Jose Maria Olazabal has expressed some surprise USA Presidents Cup captain, Fred Couples has indicated Tiger Woods will be afforded a Royal Melbourne ‘wildcard’ pick.
Couples has confirmed the appointment some three weeks before the official annoucement on September 26th of the picks by both he and Greg Norman, the International Team captain.,
Woods was wildly expected to be one of two ‘wildcard’ picks for the Presidents Cup starting on November 17th in Melbourne, Australia.
“As it stands I told him (Woods) that he’s going to be on the team,” said Couples.
“The question came up, and there’s no reason for me to wait until September 26th to pick Tiger.
“He’s the best player in the world forever. He is he playing well right now, no? He almost won Augusta three months, four months ago, so you don’t do that by playing poor golf.”
Couples’ comments come after he had remarked last week that he would like to see Woods return to competition ahead of his next scheduled tour event, and that’s the November 10th starting Australian Open in Sydney.
But don’t expect Olazabal to be announcing his two Medinah ‘wildcard’ selections well ahead of the official announcement date.
“Surprise, surprise, surprise but then Tiger is not any normal player,” said Olazabal.
“We’re talking about a guy who has won 14 Majors, and as Tiger said he’s now pretty healthy and he also has a good few weeks before the start of the Presidents Cup.
“So he’s going to be in much better shape than he was at the Bridgestone or PGA Championship.”
Olazabal was commenting after carding a second round 74 for a four over par tally after two rounds of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles in Scotland.
However there was a bizarre incident at Olazabal’s 11th hole that rekindled memories of a similar scenario involving Padraig Harrington at the final hole of the Players Championship in Florida.
Olazabal’s ball landed in the rough and unbeknown to the double Augusta champion it had come to rest on top of another ball lying deeper down, and in playing his shot two balls shot out onto the fairway.
The Spaniard was not aware of the location of his original ball while the second ball, and also a Titleist, emerged to travel a few feet. Unfortunately it cost Olazabal a two stroke penalty when he incorrectly played the ball that had been buried under his own.
“It’s the first time that something like has ever happened to me, and what I couldn’t believe was that both balls were Titleist,” Olazabal laughed.
