Double Presidents Cup winning captain Fred Couples declared he’s been vindicated in selecting Tiger Woods as a Presidents Cup Royal Melbouurne ‘wildcard’ choice.
Couples drew widespread criticism in selecting Woods for the biannual showdown against the International Tem given at the time Woods had not won anywhere since his 2009 success also in Melbourne at the Australian Maters.
However the 14-time Major champion justified his position in Couples team by finishing third a week ahead of the Presidents Cup in the Australian Open in Sydney.
Woods then ended his season winning his own Chevron Challenge in suburban L. A. before commencing 2012 with going so close to victory in ending in a share of third place in last fortnight’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
“The whole world knows Tiger made the biggest blunder in the world, but then Tiger stopped playing and he had other things to do, and then he got injured, and he’s a humongous practicer and I can promise you, one of the things that he was never going to give up,” said Couples on the eve of competing in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
“So I made it perfectly clear to Tiger when I chose him for the Presidents Cup what’s his game plan.
“He told me he would be ready and he wanted to play every day and that he’ll be ready.
“I don’t know how you can have the No. 1 player in the world for 12 years and you look at him and he says he’ll be ready and you say to him, you know I will think about it.
Fred Couples believes he's vindicated in selecting Tiger Woods as a 2011 Presidents Cup 'wildcard' choice. (Photo - Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)
“So my decision was you need to play in a tournament whether it is in the Fall Series or the Play Off series and see where your game is at.”
As it turned out the caddy to Woods was Joe La Carva who before caddying for Dustin Johnson had been the long time caddy to Couples.
And La Carva then surprised many by leaving Johnson to now caddy for Woods.
“I was talking to Joe nearly every day and he was saying, look, the guy (Woods) is rusty from not playing , but he’s hitting the ball extremely well, and we all know his driver is getting a little better,” said Couples.
“Then when I saw Tiger play in the Australian Open in Sydney, he was good as he used to be.
“He nearly killed them hitting some drives there at the Lakes Club, and then in Melbourne for the Presidents Cup he drove it really, really well.”
In fact, Woods won the match that counted capturing a 4 & 3 Sunday singles victory over Australia’s Aaron Baddeley so that the USA side retained the Presidents Cup.
And while Couples was delighted to lift the trophy for a second time with Greg Norman looking on, the 1992 Augusta National champion believes Woods’ showing in the Presidents Cup could be a turning point and leading to a 15th Major success.
“When you’ve been No. 1 in the world, you want to stay there, and you just can’t rest”, said Couples.
“So I think once your game starts to slope, and you look at players like Lee Westwood and while he was never Tiger Woods, but then Lee Westwood is now one of the top players in the world.
“Lee could have easily won a couple of Majors when other people beat him, and we’re talking about one of the top players on the European Tour.
“But with Tiger, everything is just pushed bigger and bigger and bigger and it’s just part of the deal, and he doesn’t have a problem with that.”
Couples will play the opening two rounds of the 2012 Omega Dubai Desert Classic in the company of Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie and double Major winning John Daly.
Couples won the event in 1995 on a second visit to Dubai and Monty was handed the gleaming trophy a year later.
Daly is making a first visit to compete in Dubai and after last week’s superb start to the season, the American is hoping his form continues and he returns to play in Dubai in the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai.
