Presidents Cup: US star Justin Thomas to lean on Tiger Woods for insight into Royal Melbourne

World No.5 Justin Thomas is encouraging Tiger Woods to take on dual captain/player responsibilities in December’s Presidents Cup to help the US cope with Royal Melbourne’s nuances.

Justin Thomas won the 2017 PGA title and is currently world No.5.

American hot shot Justin Thomas is not bothered by the home course advantage that four Aussies will take into the Presidents Cup because Tiger Woods will unravel Royal Melbourne’s nuances for him.

World No.5 Thomas said he hoped to soak up all of Woods’ knowledge as a fellow player, not just from him as captain of Team USA, when he makes his first visit to Australia for the elite teams event from December 12-15.

How big this Presidents Cup adventure is for American golfers because Woods is heading the show gets emphasised every time you speak to one of his players.

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Justin Thomas won the 2017 PGA title and currently is world No.5.

“I’m very excited. If you’d told me as a kid I’d be playing on a Presidents Cup team with Tiger Woods as captain, I probably would have fainted or something like that,” Thomas said.

He made it clear that Woods had sought the input of the eight players selected already on who his four captain’s picks should be, which would have thrown up Woods’ own name as Masters champion and world No.9.

“If he’s healthy and playing well, I’d take him 100 times out of 100 and he knows his body well enough to make that decision,” Thomas said from Korea, where he’s playing The CJ Cup at Nine Bridges.

“He’s asked me and I’ve told him that exact same thing.”

Woods is being egged on to play at every turn and the legacy part of his brain is going to think being a rare, winning player-captain is super appealing.

Just as it will be a first sighting of Royal Melbourne for world No.1 Brooks Koepka, Thomas is downplaying any disadvantage to that.

“I’m excited just to go to Australia for the first time, let alone play golf there for my country on a course that guys reckon I’m going to love,” Thomas said.

Tiger Woods leads the US into battle against the Internationals in December.

“Some courses you play are just right out in front of you when you play them for the first time but others have a lot nuances you need to know to get around like, say, Augusta where you get better the more you play it.

“Luckily, we have a captain (Woods) and vice-captains (Fred Couples and Steve Stricker) who know a lot about Royal Melbourne and I’ll be getting as much knowledge as I can from them and from my practice rounds.

“Using the contours and being able to put the ball on the ground and be creative (as Royal Melbourne demands) is some of my favourite golf in the world.”

Royal Melbourne won’t have the dense rough and narrow fairways that helped neutralise the losing Americans at last year’s Ryder Cup at Le Golf National in Paris, but hard, fast fairways and greens on a strategic golf course will challenge every player.

In reality, American team stalwart Matt Kuchar has more experience at Royal Melbourne than most of the Internationals team except Aussies Adam Scott, Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman and certain captain’s pick Jason Day.