Presidents Cup 2019: Tiger Woods ready to roar in Melbourne
Tiger Woods has left no stone unturned in his bid to lead Team USA to victory in the Presidents Cup in Melbourne. And his teammates are ready to feed of his legendary competitive spirit.
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Rickie Fowler summed up the impending threat of Tiger Woods, just the second-ever playing captain in the Presidents Cup, in a single sentence.
“He has every competitive gene that you could think of,” Fowler, the last man added to the star-studded team USA said this week.
Bryson DeChambeau, playing in his first Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne next week, went further.
“What he brings to the table, the intensity, the passion, the competitiveness, the drive to do the best he possibly can, you’re going to see that out of him, I’m sure,” the 26-year-old Woods protégé said.
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The debate about just who is the best golfer of all time is unwinnable.
Do you go on pure numbers? How do you compare eras, equipment?
But there’s no question about who is the most competitive golfer ever.
That unrelenting drive to not just be the best he can be, but to be the absolute best, was drilled in to Woods from the time he could first swing a club.
It’s the key reason why Woods destroyed, without fear or favour fields around the world during a staggering period of success from his Masters breakthrough as a 21-year-old in 1997 until his 14th major win in 2009.
It’s the key reason why, aged 43, after so many back and knee surgeries, that Woods was able to do the unthinkable in April this year, and win the Masters again.
It’s the key reason why his team USA, a long way from home and with a team half-full of rookies, are still favourites to win the Presidents Cup for the eighth time in a row.
“We all grew up watching Tiger and looking up to him. He was someone that was, you know, pushing golf and moving the needle,” Fowler said.
“So to be on not only a team with him, but him being a captain of the team, it’s special. We all want to play with him. We all want him to push us.”
Woods only played 13 times in 2019, but won twice.
That’s why he’s still a scary proposition, scary enough for Marc Leishman, who looms as the most likely to stare down Woods in the Sunday singles, refused to call him out this week.
The genial Aussie played the opening two rounds at Augusta with Woods in 2018, and has a nice little story about an exchange on the 15th green after sticking his second shot to a couple of metres from a tough position, playing before Woods.
But he won’t tell the story publicly, nor will he do anything that might “poke the Tiger” ahead of next week’s encounter.
“I’m not going to say I want to play him, because I don’t want to give him any extra motivation,” Leishman said, knowing just how primed Woods will be.
“I’ve played with him a lot and played well with him. I enjoy playing with him. I definitely don’t want to poke the bear, or poke the Tiger.
“He doesn’t need any extra motivation, and I don’t want to give it to him.”
Woods has motivation beyond his own inner drive, too.
The last time he turned out for his country, in the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris, he and his team, which featured eight players who will turn out at Royal Melbourne, were thrashed.
Woods, on the team after his stunning win in the Tour Championship, which was his first victory in five years, didn’t win any of his four matches.
He conceded he’d pushed himself one event too far, and called himself “one of the contributing factors” to the massive loss.
Now he’s in charge, and there’s not a member of team USA who doesn’t think making up for that defeat, for Woods, for his country, will be a factor this time.
“I know Tiger means business. He’s not overlooking anything, and I think over the last few years, people have begun to see how much the team events do mean to Tiger,” Fowler said.
“Tiger’s definitely someone who likes to kind of be in control of what he can be in control of … I know that he does not want to go down there and not come back without the Cup.”
Fowler said for all Woods steely determination, he “wouldn’t be bringing out the pompoms” to drive his message home, as much as they’d like to see it.
“I think all of us will get a good laugh out of there,” he said.
“I think it’s a little bit more of like, hey, this is your job, this is what you need to go do, go take care of business, so a little bit more to the point.”
A message delivered from Woods would never go unheeded.
Dustin Johnson has been a teammate of Woods and said now as captain he would find the best way to motivate the players, as he motivated himself through 22 years of professional winning.
“I’ve been on a lot of teams with Tiger and he’s always wants to be a part of everything. Strategy, motivation, he does it all,” Johnson said. “We’re going to talk, but we don’t need any ra-ra speeches from him to get up for the event. We want to win.”
Patrick Reed, dubbed “Captain America” for his own full-on, ultra-competitive performances in team events like the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, said Woods didn’t have to say much to hold a room in awe anyway.
“To think that he has 82 wins, any time Tiger Woods says something, everyone is going to be listening because of how much success he’s had on the golf course,” Reed said.
“And I feel like that’s a good sign of a great leader is not only can he get everyone’s attention, but also he has all the wins to back it up.”
“I mean, who wouldn’t want Tiger Woods as your captain? It’s amazing. I feel like all of us are just going to embrace that and go out and play the best golf we can, not only for ourselves and for our country but also for him.”
The last word on Woods has to go to the man himself, who made himself the best by driving himself, demanding more of himself, demanding more than most players could dream of.
But now, as a leader of men, his messaging when it comes to winning the Presidents Cup, is more simple.
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“I’m not going to be yelling at the guys,” he said.
“I’m trying to help them be in the best possible position to go earn points. That’s how we win Cups. And I want them to have a great memorable experience, to come together.
“We’re never going to have this team again. Every team I’ve been on, that’s one time. You’re never going to have the same 12 guys again.
“I just want them to go out there and just have the time of their lives doing something that we all love to do, which is compete and play.
“Do something we don’t get a chance to do very often, which is play for something bigger than just ourselves.”