Different Situations for Fred Couples and Greg Norman in Presidents Cup Selections

Usually, the toughest part of the Captain’s job for any team event is selecting players to fill out the team who didn’t qualify automatically. This chore for the 2009 Presidents Cup in San Francisco, CA October 8-11 is no exception for US Captain Fred Couples. He must select two from this group of three: Lucas Glover, Brian Gay and Hunter Mahan. Glover is a slam dunk. No way is he left off this team after winning the US Open and strongly contending in the PGA. It’s the other pick that will cause the normally unflappable Couples to lose sleep. Red-hot Ryder Cup hero Mahan might seem to be an easy pick based on his play the end of May, which includes a 6th, two 4ths and a 2nd. But how can you leave off Gay who has already won twice on the PGA Tour this year with both of those wins coming in dominating fashion? The problem is Gay’s recent form hasn’t been very good with 3 missed cuts in his last 6 events and no other finish better than 26th (including a DFL at the non-cut WGC two weeks ago and an awful missed cut last week at the PGA).

Conversely International Captain Greg Norman has relatively simple selections, although he will be leaving some big names off that team. An in-form Rory Sabbatini just missed automatically qualifying only because of Y.E. Yang’s monumental PGA Championship win. So he is an easy pick for Norman to make. His other selection will likely be Jeev Milka Singh, a cool customer who is 12th on the points list and playing as well or better than anyone else not qualified. But check out the former International team members who will not be playing at Harding Park: Adam Scott, 2008 Masters champ Trevor Immelman, K.J. Choi and Stuart Appleby. By their normal standards, they are all having a horrendous 2009.