Mike's Blog - Presidents Cup

This week I'm at home, preparing for the Presidents Cup.  I'm very excited about joining my teammates in San Francisco and trying to finally get a win in this event.  I have to admit that going through the FedEx Cup was definitely a draining experience.  We played four events in five weeks and all with high stakes.  I was generally pleased with the way I played, and anytime you get into the Tour Championship you know you're doing something right.

I followed up that last event with two days at Reynolds Plantation, taping some commercials and having some ad photos taken for next year's TaylorMade commercials.  It's quite a process and takes a lot longer than you might think, but TaylorMade does it right, bringing all the staff players together at one time and getting everything done in a couple of days.  I'm sure it must be a gigantic task to coordinate it all and it's always interesting to see the final product compared to what you did at the time.  There's always a lot of hurry up and wait, but it's generally a lot of fun.

As for the Presidents Cup, I think this will be the first time that I've gone into it with our side as the underdogs.  Right now, you'd have to admit that on paper the Americans are playing better but that doesn't always translate into a win.  If it did, I'd have four titles.
 
It seems that at these events anything can, and usually, does happen. Match play is such a different format than we play on the PGA Tour week-in and week-out.  There are so many variables that come into play and you are playing much more against your opponent than you do in a regular PGA Tour event.

For our side I think the biggest hurdle will be to try and find a way to play better in the foursomes.  I think we only won half a point in that format in Montreal and I don't think we've ever done that well for some reason.

As for the pairings, we've had a number of conversations with Greg Norman and I think you'll see some heavy thinking go into his selections.  Personality plays a part and so does something like the brand of ball.  For instance Robert Allenby and Tim Clark play the same ball so you might see them paired together.   Also, history is a helper too.  I've played well with Ernie in the past so I might end up playing with him.  I'm sure Greg's been giving it a lot of thought and I'll be ready on Thursday no matter who my partner is.

The Presidents Cup is a great event and I was very proud of the job the folks did in hosting it last time in Montreal.  I know it will be a great one again in San Francisco and I'm ready to help my teammates any way I can.

As always, thanks for your support.
Mike