Aussie player Aaron Baddeley thinks International Team is an underdog at this year’s President’s Cup
International Team’s 12th player, who was selected through the personal recommendation of the Captain Greg Norman, strangely, thinks that his team is essentially an underdog in the upcoming event keeping in view the US Team’s overwhelming performance
in the last few years. Baddeley was picked up by Norman despite of his lingering form vows, something that gave US Team Captain Fred Couples a chance to criticise Norman’s decision.
“If you look at the records, USA have pretty much dominated The Presidents Cup and I think we definitely come in here as underdogs, even though we feel we have a bit of an advantage with the golf course,” Baddeley said Wednesday. “Obviously you’ve got five
Aussies and it helps, but I still think we are underdogs.”
The comments will certainly not go down well with the Captain Norman who has vowed to lead the team from the front and has already said that he will be more of an assertive Captain than a teammate. International Team won the coveted title some 13 years ago
at Royal Melbourne Golf Club under the captaincy of Peter Thompson by a huge score of 20½ and 11½. The US Team was led by the “Golden Bear” Jack Nicklaus and since then, International Team has not won a single title for more than a decade. They were able to
post a tie in 2003 but failed to contain the rampaging US Team in the rest of the following years, primarily because of Tiger Woods trailblazing golf.
Although ranked among the top most players in putting average, Baddeley has barely been able to pull in a victory at the start of the season at the Northern Trust Open on the PGA. The much-awaited victory has come after a lapse of three years, during which
the 30-year-old kept striving to regain his lost form.
Despite Baddeley’s reservations about his own team, this year’s International Team boosts of strong chances with no fewer than five Australian players and string of other strong players who comes with tons of experience of the Royal Melbourne. The team comprises
of Adam Scott, Jason Day, Geoff Ogilvy, and Norman who are among the rest of the Aussie players in the team apart from top Asian stars like K.J Choi, only Asian major winner Y.E Yang, trailblazing Japanese Ryo Ishikawa, Masters winner Charl Schwartzel, Kim
Kyung-tae and veteran Retief Goosen.
Baddeley is paired with top-ranked Aussie player Jason Day and will be playing against the American pair of Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson. Baddeley and Day are the only Aussies who have been paired together.
“We are both going to be nervous,” Baddeley said about his pairing with Day. “We are both going to be excited to get out there and we both want to do well.”
The tournament is set to begin on Thursday 17th at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
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