Now, a guy like myself can be very long-winded in breaking down team competitions. Player stats, past and current performances, course design and conditions...these are just some of the things that I can ramble on and on about, but in the interest of being concise and saving some time, here is my prediction for this year's President's Cup, taking place at Harding Park in San Francisco...
Look for Team USA to dominate.
Or at least win.
The field of IPNFE (International Players Not From Europe), as I call it, is simply not as deep nor as experienced as the squad that the USA has assembled. The international team has a total of 10 wins in 2009, with 4 of them coming on the Japan Golf Tour by Ryo Ishikawa. At only 18, Ishikawa is undoubtedly an incredible talent, but consider that he is Greg Norman's personal pick. The top 6 players points-wise on the International Team (Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els and Angel Cabrera, in that order) only have 4 wins total in 2009. The other 2 remaining wins were provided by Y.E. Yang, who edged out Tiger Woods in a spectacular display of golf at the PGA Championship at Hazeltine.
In comparison, the U.S. Team has 19 total wins in 2009, virtually double that of the International team, with all wins coming from PGA Tour events. The top 6 players points-wise on the U.S. Team (Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Kenny Perry and Zack Johnson, in that order) account for a whopping 16 of the 19 wins in 2009. Fred Couple's captain's picks are also spectacular choices; Lucas Glover won the U.S. Open and Hunter Mahan has been freakishly consistent, with only 1 missed cut in 24 tournaments.
Considering momentum, it is vital to note that the U.S. Team's top two players (Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson) have had recent end-of-season wins that would make them appear to be in top form coming into this event. Woods won back-to-back on August 2nd and 9th, and then again on September 13th, while also winning the season-long FedEx Cup. Mickelson came off a 6-month drought to win the Tour Championship on September 27th, which came as very nice surprise to most of the golf world considering he had taken much of the season off to help his wife battle breast cancer.
The U.S. Team has won the President's Cup 5 out of 7 times outright, with a tie going to both sides in the historic battle at Fancourt in South Africa in 2003 as Tiger Woods and Ernie Els battled into the darkness and team captains Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player fittingly determining that the contest should end in a tie. While anything is possible in team competition, I'm firmly convinced that Fred Couple's easy-going attitude and the overall arsenal of talent prevalent on the U.S. Team will help the U.S. retain the cup but provide incredible drama nonetheless.
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