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THE PRESIDENTS CUPDecember 11, 2019Tiger WoodsErnie ElsMelbourne, Australia CHRIS REIMER: Ready to get started with our pairings for the final round of the Presidents Cup. At this time I would like to introduce John Mutch our match committee to oversee the proceedings. JOHN MUTCH: We will conduct 30 matches. The team that has 15 1/2 points will be the winner. If each team runs 15 points, the result will be a tie and the teams will share the Cup until they meet again at Quail Hollow in 2021. Players are required to play in one of the first four rounds. Matches tied after 18 holes will end in a tie and each team earns a half a point. Round One will be fourball format. The U.S. Team is defending and will either select first or defer to the International Team. Captains will have two minutes to make their collection. Captain Woods, your decision, please. TIGER WOODS: The U.S. side will defer. JOHN MUTCH: United States Team has deferred. Captain Els, your selection, please. ERNIE ELS: We select Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann. JOHN MUTCH: The International Team has selected Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann. Captain Woods, your collection, please. CHRIS REIMER: Marc Leishman making his first appearance in The Presidents Cup, paired with Joaquin Niemann from Chile making his first appearance, first player from his country to qualify for the Presidents Cup. TIGER WOODS: Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods. JOHN MUTCH: United States Team has selected Justin Thomas and Tiger Woods. Captain Woods, your selection, please. CHRIS REIMER: Tiger making his ninth appearance in The Presidents Cup. 24 matches won. Ranks second all-time to Phil Mickelson's 26, paired with Justin Thomas for the first time in this event. Justin made his Presidents Cup debut in 2017, overall record of 3-1-1. JOHN MUTCH: Captain Woods, your selection, please. TIGER WOODS: Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay. JOHN MUTCH: United States Team has selected Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. Captain Els, your selection, please. ERNIE ELS: We go Adam Hadwin, Sungjae Im. JOHN MUTCH: International Team has selected Adam Hadwin and Sungjae Im. Captain Els, your selection, please. CHRIS REIMER: Adam Hadwin, making his second appearance in The Presidents Cup. Played in the 2017 event. Sungjae is making his first appearance. ERNIE ELS: We go Adam Scott and Byeonghun An. JOHN MUTCH: International Team has selected Adam Scott and Byeonghun An. Captain Woods, your selection, please. CHRIS REIMER: Adam Scott in his ninth appearance, Byeonghun An in his first, Byeonghun An a captain's selection by Captain Els. TIGER WOODS: Bryson DeChambeau and Tony Finau. JOHN MUTCH: American Team has selected Bryson DeChambeau and Tony Finau. Captain Woods, your selection, please. CHRIS REIMER: Bryson and Tony both making their first Presidents Cup appearance. TIGER WOODS: Webb Simpson, Patrick Reed. JOHN MUTCH: United States Team has selected Webb Simpson and Patrick Reed. Captain Els, your selection, please. ERNIE ELS: We go Hideki Matsuyama and CT pan. JOHN MUTCH: International Team has selected Hideki Matsuyama and CT pan. Captain Els, your selection, please. ERNIE ELS: We have Abraham Ancer and Louis Oosthuizen. JOHN MUTCH: The International Team has selected Abraham answerer and Louis Oosthuizen. Captain Woods, your selection, please. TIGER WOODS: Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland. JOHN MUTCH: United States Team has selected Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland. Tomorrow's forecast is partly cloudy with a chance of morning showers, a high of 65 degrees Fahrenheit with southwest winds 15 to 25 miles per hour. Play well. CHRIS REIMER: We'll have a few comments from the captains on the pairings. Q. What was the thinking behind putting yourself up against Marc Leishman first off? TIGER WOODS: Well, I think from our side, we had a game plan, who we wanted to start out, and we wore committed to putting Justin and myself out there, and that's who we're rolling with. Q. For Tiger, what did you want to see out of DJ early in the week to have confidence to put him out there in the first matches? TIGER WOODS: More than anything with DJ, it's just making sure that he recovered from the flight. He's feeling good. He's worked out each and every day we've been here. His lifts have been good. Game is coming along, and he was chomping at the bit to get out there. Q. As you look back on what just happened, which choice or which moment gave you the most hesitation in what we just saw? ERNIE ELS: None. TIGER WOODS: I didn't hear the question. CHRIS REIMER: Is there a moment that gave you hesitation or challenged you the most in that pairings process? TIGER WOODS: There was zero hesitation here. Q. With seven rookies, you had to kind of find a way to get everybody out as much as possible, so you got five out right now. I think each is paired with someone that's had some experience. How difficult is that to try to figure out when you're trying to, you know, obviously try to get the lead at the beginning? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, we've had a plan, and this is the way we figured it. Yeah, I can't give you exactly what we're doing in the team room, but you know, we've got a system and we're following that; let's put it that way. Q. Adam was just in here and described you as calm. Are you feeling kind of what you thought you would be feeling right about now? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I have good assistants with me. I have a good team with me. I've got a lot of work that I've put in behind me. So yeah, we've got a system and we're just following that. So, feeling good. Q. Tiger, how is the pressure different as a captain, as opposed to as a player, in an event like this? TIGER WOODS: Well, I think having my two vice captaincies prepared me for being in this role as a captain. The player's side, I've done it for a very long time (smiling) so that was the easier side of it. But certainly having those two experiences helped out a lot. Q. How are you feeling physically? How has been the recovery been from the long trip, and how do you feel your game is at this point? And quickly, is Stricker the one who takes your place as the advice person when you're playing? TIGER WOODS: As far as the recovery from the flight, it was a long flight. It was nice to get out and stretch your legs yesterday. We wish we could have gotten here on Monday, but we were a little bit delayed. I got a chance to play all of yesterday. Played a little bit today. Just to try to get a feel for this golf course. It is quick and it has dried out and hopefully the forecast will hold for each and every day. The preparation is very simple. Q. Is it important to you to get on course first so you can hopefully be off and oversee the other matches? TIGER WOODS: Yeah, it was important for me to get out there as a player, but also as a captain, I want to obviously see my guys play. This is my first time as a captain. I want to be able to enjoy that part of it, as well. So having my responsibility as a player, I want to get out there and play with Justin, but also as a captain, I want to see my guys play. Q. You've been thinking about these pairings for a while. Was Webb Simpson always the guy you had in mind to be with Patrick Reed, or is that something that you settled on since you got here and saw something in Webb? TIGER WOODS: We've had game plans; obviously we're not going to reveal any of them, but we've had options for each and every player. They have given their opinion of who they think is best suited for him, and it's more than just one option. We've had numerous options for each and every player, in case different scenarios happen as the week goes on. Those two are excited to play with one another. Q. Just quickly, who is the captain tomorrow? TIGER WOODS: It will be Steve Stricker. Q. There's been a lot of talk about trying to get the crowd behind you, and obviously getting off to a fast start, as well. Was it tempting at all to send all four Aussies out there? Obviously you left Cameron out. Did that change at all this week? How did that work? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, the crowd's nice. We spent a bit of time out there today. I was kind of rallying the troops a little bit out there. A lot of excitement for tomorrow. No, as I said, you know, we've got to -- I'll tell you Sunday night what exactly has been transpiring, but we have a system we are following, and I can't let anything out of the bag more than that. But there's enough Australians out there tomorrow to rally a lot of guys, but as I said to them, we are all one this week, Australians, South Africans, the whole Internationals. Hopefully they will support us very nicely and very fair. CHRIS REIMER: Captain Els and Captain Woods, thank you for your time. Good luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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