/ 21 September 2005

‘Golf is a puzzle without an answer’

Tiger Woods is likely to receive the Presidents Cup pairings he seeks this week with Jim Furyk and Fred Couples and David Toms is fit and ready to play, United States captain Jack Nicklaus said on Tuesday.

Woods, the Masters and British Open champion, played a practice round with Couples on Tuesday at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, where 12-man US and International squads begin their biennial matches on Thursday.

World number one Woods named Furyk and Couples last month as two teammates he wanted to play alongside.

”We’ll see how they look the next couple days and if it’s what they want to do, that’s fine,” Nicklaus said.

Nicklaus asked each US player to write the names of who they wanted to be paired with during foursomes and four-ball matches from Thursday until Saturday.

”They all put Tiger. We had Tiger put down who he wants to play with and he put down a smiley face,” Nicklaus said.

Toms is taking medication to treat a heart problem that led to his collapse with a rapid heartbeat during a US PGA event last week. He has delayed surgery to fix the problem until after the Presidents Cup, likely next week.

”David was telling me he’s going to play and that’s it,” Nicklaus said.

”He was fine this morning and didn’t seem to have an issue.

”David has had this condition for quite a while. It’s not a life-threatening situation. It’s whether he handles the new medication. He thinks he can.”

The Americans lead the series 3-1 with the most recent edition in 2003 in South Africa ending in a 17-17 draw when darkness halted a playoff between Woods and South African Ernie Els after three holes.

Els has been sidelined by a knee injury and will not attend even in an advisory role.

”He’s recovering very quickly but his doctors advised him not to come at this stage so he can recoup and get playing again,” Internationals captain Gary Player said.

”I understand. He has got to do it for his knee. He has to get it right. He said he has never been so bored. Having to sit in one place when he has been so active is driving him nuts.”

The non-European global squad will be led by Fiji’s Vijay Singh and South African Retief Goosen. Player puts them with any golf team in the world, including last year’s European Ryder Cup winners.

”If Ernie Els were on our team, I think we’d have a better team than the European Ryder Cup team,” Player said. ”Not to say if we played them we would beat them — I think we would. But it’s a stronger team.”

Nicklaus agrees the US team, eight members of which were on the squad routed last year by Europe in the Ryder Cup, could be at a disadvantage.

”On paper, possibly, the International team looks stronger,” Nicklaus said. ”I use the argument that we’re playing on American soil but the International players all live over here too so I don’t know whether that holds any water.”

Having a squad of players who play US Tour events and are familiar with courses and conditions helps, Player said, seeing little home soil advantage.

”I was never concerned about that. The soil is the same here as it is back in South Africa or Australia. All our guys play on the tour over here so they really are accustomed to everything,” Player said.

”It doesn’t matter whether you are Masters champion or you haven’t played well recently. It’s what you do this week.

”Golf is a puzzle without an answer. So we all tee off on equal footing.” – Sapa-AFP