Captains Fred Couples and Greg Norman pick their final players for the President’s Cup
Captains of the upcoming President’s Cup have given their final verdict for the last two selections on each team. Fred Couples, the American Captain, announced almost a month ago that Tiger Woods would be on the team regardless of his lingering vows and
stated that the final berth will be given out after analysing the performance of the PGA Tour players in the FedExCup Playoffs Championship.
Bill Haas, who won the Tour Championship presented by Coca Cola at East Lake last week, came out to be the successful candidate and will now be part of the American team heading into the President’s Cup scheduled at Royal Melbourne from November 15-20. Greg
Norman, on the other hand, has given out his final verdict in favour of Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley.
Haas took over the previous two-time player on the President’s Cup team, Hunter Mahan on the final leg of the FedExCup Championship, defeating him on a three-hole nail-biting playoff. Haas pulled in an amazing chip on the second playoff when his ball was
half soaked in water and went all the way to lift the massive $10-million trophy.
Already a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, Haas’s performance throughout the championship remained steady and showed immense composure on several occasions to lead the rounds in the month-long championship. As for Woods, only time can tell whether Couples
made the right choice to pull in his former buddy for the tough event ahead.
Norman, who had also been on his toes for the Tour Championship results, opted for Baddeley keeping in view his strong joint third finish in the Tour Championship. Baddeley remained in contention until the last moment when Haas and Mahan decided to go for
the playoff all by themselves and the young Australian had to settle for the third place.
Baddeley is also a three-time PGA Tour winner and has two top-five finishes on the tour this year, besides a victory at the Northern Trust Open. He is among the four other rookies on the International team and will have the benefit of the home crowd on a
familiar turf.
Contrary to the comparatively novice players, Allenby boosts of perhaps the strongest resume which made him eligible to be on the International team. A four-time PGA TOUR event winner, Allenby has been a part of the International team on five occasions previously
and his record is only exceeded by Ernie Els who has played six President’s Cups.
Although Allenby has been fighting dilapidating form and has not won a single event in the past ten years, he has pulled in some strong performances in the current season including the joint fourth at Northern Trust Open, and a joint sixth in both the AT&T
National and Shell Houston Open. He pulled in a joint 12th at the BMW Championship, his best finish at the month-long FedExCup Championship.
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