10-for-10: Best Cup moments
Sudden-death playoff between Els, Woods in 2003 was epic
Here are the 10 best moments from the first 10 Presidents Cups. The 11th begins Thursday at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon, South Korea.
10. Oh, Canada: Mike Weir, at No. 20 in the standings, was a captain’s pick for the 2007 Presidents Cup in Canada. Even though the Americans had a huge lead at Royal Montreal going into Sunday, the Canadian faced Tiger Woods with a nation watching. Weir made a birdie to square the match on the 17th. On the final hole, Woods’ tee shot failed to clear the water on the left and splashed down in front of a pair of fans holding a Maple Leaf flag. The Americans won the cup. Weir won a match that felt almost as big.
9. Nice guy Nick: The Presidents Cup was never more packed with emotion than in South Africa in 2003. The matches were close from the start, particularly on Sunday, and especially Nick Price against Kenny Perry. Perry won three straight holes. Price won the next three. It came down to the 18th hole, and Price had a birdie putt to halve the match. He missed, and walking off the green, he broke his putter over his knee.
8. Boom-Boom: For the longest time, Fred Couples was the American face of the Ryder Cup. He secured victory in 1996 with a 35-foot birdie putt and a celebration that was vintage Freddie. As he raced off the green, he grabbed a hat off the head of a caddie and threw it in the air, then butchered a high-five with Davis Love. Nine years later, Couples made a critical putt to beat Vijay Singh, dropping his putter and walking away. As a captain, he went 3-0.
7. Thunder Down Under: The first two Presidents Cups were held in Virginia, and the International team demanded a home game. So it went to Royal Melbourne in1998, and the Americans were so stacked that International captain Peter Thomson introduced them as the “greatest collection of golfers in the world.” Just not that week. The event was so lopsided that Price secured the winning point by beating David Duval before breakfast had stopped being served. The final score was 20 1⁄2- 11 1⁄2.
6. Aquaman: Woody Austin tried to play a shot from the bank of a lake on the 14th hole at Royal Montreal in 2007 when he lost his balance, stumbled backward and fell face first into the water. The one-liners were endless. The fans called out “Marco” and “Polo” the rest of his match. U.S. captain Jack Nicklaus put him in the lineup the next day and announced him as “Jacques Cousteau.” Austin played along and showed up Sunday wearing snorkeling gear.
5. Graham’s ouster: The early days of the Presidents Cup brought controversy that would have made the Ryder Cup blush. Two months before the 1996 matches, the International team met at the British Open for what amounted to a coup. They demanded David Graham be ousted as captain. He resigned, though he felt the players had defamed his character. Some players felt planning for the matches was being ignored. Others, particularly South Africans and Australians, wanted more say in choosing the captain. Thomson took over, and the Americans still won.
4. DiMarco’s moment: More than any of his three PGA Tour victories, the career highlight for Chris DiMarco might have been his 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club to win the 2005 Presidents Cup. DiMarco was in the final match against Stuart Appleby, and when the putt went in, he ran across the green and straight into the arms of captain Nicklaus.
3. The departure: The second Presidents Cup was compelling and not decided until Couples’ 35-foot birdie putt on the 17th. But the final day of the 1996 matches was missing a large faction of the national press. That same week, 20-year-old Tiger Woods was playing in the Quad City Classic in his third start as a pro, and he had a one-shot lead. Golf writers from the largest national publications left Virginia for a small town in western Illinois to watch Woods. The Americans won. Woods lost.
2. Tiger Who? The Americans rolled to victory in 2000, but Woods managed to find motivation. He played his Sunday singles match against Vijay Singh. Paul Tesori, the caddie for Singh, thought it would be funny to write “Tiger Who?” on the back of his cap. Woods apparently didn’t. He made a bogey on the fourth hole and refused to concede Singh’s 10-foot birdie putt or the 18-inch par putt that followed. Woods beat him on the 17th hole. Asked about it, Woods replied, “2 and 1.”
1. The tie: The best Presidents Cup is the one nobody won. The rule in 2003 was if the matches ended in a tie, each team would pick one player for a suddendeath playoff. It was Ernie Els vs. Woods, and the tension was thick. Els made a12-foot putt to halve the second extra hole. On the next hole, when it was so dark it was tough to read the break, Woods made a 15-footer that broke twice for par. Els faced a 6-foot putt with both teams camped around the green. He made it for a halve. Instead of returning Monday, captains Nicklaus and Gary Player agreed it was best to end it as a tie and let the teams share the cup.