Tiger as Captain's pick for Pres. Cup?

[GaijinGolfer]

Horrible idea.  Tiger isnt even playing very well right now so itwas pretty much a wasted pick.

[sean_miller]

How did you feel about Greg Norman passing over a couple Asian players to put a slumping Adam Scott on the team?

Originally Posted by Shorty

First of all, you don't "shoot scores" in match play.

Secondly, why is someone who thinks Woods doesn't deserve to be on the team a "hater"? - God I hate that stupid term

Thirdly - Woods may well play really well. But that's not the point. He has not earnt his place on the team and other players and fans know he shouldn't be on the team.

It makes Couples look like a sycophant and reflects poorly on him.

[clubchamp]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

How did you feel about Greg Norman passing over a couple Asian players to put a slumping Adam Scott on the team?

I thought it was a bad pick and I believe he went 1-4 so it was a bad pick.

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

How did you feel about Greg Norman passing over a couple Asian players to put a slumping Adam Scott on the team?

An obvious question, but a good one.

Norman had the opportunity to make himself look like  an idiot or a genius. Luckily for everyone, it worked out.

The thing with Scott is that he was still playing. He was struggling, but he hadn't given up. Everyone, including Norman knows how good he is.

Tiger isn't playing. He could have played last week, but he didn't.

To me, that means he has essentially thrown in the towel for this season, and this should have disqualified him in the eyes of Couples.

If Woods does actually play, he has as good a chance as anyone to do well, given the match play format, but it doesn't sit well with me.

Norman's gesture was an act of trust and good faith.

A good performance in Melbourne is not going to prove that Tiger is back.

If I were Couples, I would have said to him - "Let's see how your form is next year. We want you in the Ryder Cup team."

[franky21]

I think it was a great idea to add Tiger to the team. He will not be playing against the field it will be against the opposing player. He will be fine and will play well. Tiger and Stricker will most likely play together as a team, so he will play with a guy he loves playing with and when it single he doesnt need to worry about the rest of the field just what the other guy is doing.

[sean_miller]

I agree.

Originally Posted by Shorty

An obvious question, but a good one.

Norman had the opportunity to make himself look like  an idiot or a genius. Luckily for everyone, it worked out.

The thing with Scott is that he was still playing. He was struggling, but he hadn't given up. Everyone, including Norman knows how good he is.

Tiger isn't playing. He could have played last week, but he didn't.

To me, that means he has essentially thrown in the towel for this season, and this should have disqualified him in the eyes of Couples.

If Woods does actually play, he has as good a chance as anyone to do well, given the match play format, but it doesn't sit well with me.

Norman's gesture was an act of trust and good faith.

A good performance in Melbourne is not going to prove that Tiger is back.

If I were Couples, I would have said to him - "Let's see how your form is next year. We want you in the Ryder Cup team."

[jamo]

Has anyone seen the headlines on Yahoo! about this? "Tiger Woods gets big honor"? "Tiger Woods named to prestigious team"? What? Do they think Obama is making these picks or something?

[laconic517]

Originally Posted by Shorty

First of all, you don't "shoot scores" in match play.

Secondly, why is someone who thinks Woods doesn't deserve to be on the team a "hater"? - God I hate that stupid term

Thirdly - Woods may well play really well. But that's not the point. He has not earnt his place on the team and other players and fans know he shouldn't be on the team.

It makes Couples look like a sycophant and reflects poorly on him.

No one who is a captain's pick has earned their place on the team.  That's why they are captain's picks.  If anyone has a problem with it they should have played better and got on the team by points.  They are Freddie's picks and he can do with them as he pleases.  I love how you mentioned the Adam Scott pick was "good faith" yet Tiger isn't?  You have no problem showing Adam Scott good faith but you do with Tiger?  Fred Couples believe's in Tiger.  Period.  Or he wouldn't have put him on the team. He has a hell of a lot more of a proven track record than Adam ****ing Scott.

[shades9323]

Since your crystal ball obviously reaches out several months, could you tell us who the winner of the tour championship will be so we can make some extra cash?

Originally Posted by TitleistWI

Horrible idea.  Tiger isnt even playing very well right now so itwas pretty much a wasted pick.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Shorty

The thing with Scott is that he was still playing. He was struggling, but he hadn't given up. Everyone, including Norman knows how good he is.

Tiger isn't playing. He could have played last week, but he didn't.

To me, that means he has essentially thrown in the towel for this season, and this should have disqualified him in the eyes of Couples.

I don't buy it. He'd just come back, having practiced for two weeks tops, and played in two events, during which time you can't really "practice" the way you need to practice to prepare. A third week of "not so much practicing, more trying to get around a golf course" could easily be seen as a worse choice. He's not "playing" but he's practicing, and contrary to the opinions of the guys who avoid the practice range, the best way to get out of a funk is not to try to play your way out of it, but to practice your way out of it.

Yes, there's a delicate balance - you need to play some tournament rounds in order to cement some things, but you can't ONLY play in tournaments when you need to practice . Monday's a light day. Tuesday and Wednesday are about learning the golf course, and nobody makes any real changes on those days of the week. You've gotta dance with the girl you brought, because the music starts on Thursday.

Bear in mind that if he'd played well enough at the Wyndham, he'd then be committed, basically, for playing every playoff event (he couldn't skip the first because he'd be low in the standings) until he was eliminated, so that three weeks in a row could stretch quite easily to four, five, six...

[sean_miller]

If I was an international player, the prospect of facing Tiger would be very intriguing. Who's gonna show up? The good Tiger or the completely lacklustre (and borderline embarassing) Foley coached Tiger? It's possible that neither Tiger nor Foley are actually smart enough to see how wrong that partnership is, but maybe playing alongside Stricker for a few days will be a wakeup call - enough tinkering already - just hit the ball!!

[newtogolf]

It's kind of no win for the international player.  If the international player wins, people will say so what he beat a gimpy Tiger, and if he loses, people will wonder how he lost to a gimpy Tiger.

Originally Posted by sean_miller

If I was an international player, the prospect of facing Tiger would be very intriguing. Who's gonna show up? The good Tiger or the completely lacklustre (and borderline embarassing) Foley coached Tiger? It's possible that neither Tiger nor Foley are actually smart enough to see how wrong that partnership is, but maybe playing alongside Stricker for a few days will be a wakeup call - enough tinkering already - just hit the ball!!

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

It's kind of no win for the international player.  If the international player wins, people will say so what he beat a gimpy Tiger, and if he loses, people will wonder how he lost to a gimpy Tiger.

Unless of course, Tiger does play well....and the only way we will know that now is if TitleistWI tells us

[topspin4hand]

I don't think Tiger should be playing for different reasons than you. I disagree with your post quoted below.  To say that Tiger has "thrown in the towel" is as big of a speculative statement as someone who says "Tiger's gonna win the next tournament he enters!"  Imo, Adam was struggling that year, and Tiger is struggling now. Tiger has been quoted as saying that he's working on his game at the moment thus I don't get the "thrown in the towel" comment or the implication that Tiger's given up and Adam had not given up a couple yrs ago.

Greg Norman and Fred Couples both went out on limbs for their guys.  Imagine if Couples had to make his pick from a pool of players from different countries and he picked struggling Tiger who shared his citizenship (as Norman shared with Adam)! That would've really put a lot of folks' panties into a bunch.

Originally Posted by Shorty

An obvious question, but a good one.Norman had the opportunity to make himself look like  an idiot or a genius. Luckily for everyone, it worked out.

The thing with Scott is that he was still playing. He was struggling, but he hadn't given up. Everyone, including Norman knows how good he is.Tiger isn't playing. He could have played last week, but he didn't.

To me, that means he has essentially thrown in the towel for this season, and this should have disqualified him in the eyes of Couples.

If Woods does actually play, he has as good a chance as anyone to do well, given the match play format, but it doesn't sit well with me.

Norman's gesture was an act of trust and good faith.

A good performance in Melbourne is not going to prove that Tiger is back.

If I were Couples, I would have said to him - "Let's see how your form is next year. We want you in the Ryder Cup team."

[walk18]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

If I was an international player, the prospect of facing Tiger would be very intriguing. Who's gonna show up? The good Tiger or the completely lacklustre (and borderline embarassing) Foley coached Tiger? It's possible that neither Tiger nor Foley are actually smart enough to see how wrong that partnership is, but maybe playing alongside Stricker for a few days will be a wakeup call - enough tinkering already - just hit the ball!!

Wow, that's all it takes? Just hit the ball?

[LankyLefty]

Get real people... Tiger is going to be in every major golfing event that he wants to be in for so long as it makes people like you and me more likely to talk about it and then go watch it.

It not about how well hes played or how good his season was.... its about the fact that hes Tiger woods and everywhere he goes big hype(and TV ratings) follow.

[Zwick]

Perhaps you could call them and share your wisdom!

Originally Posted by sean_miller

If I was an international player, the prospect of facing Tiger would be very intriguing. Who's gonna show up? The good Tiger or the completely lacklustre (and borderline embarassing) Foley coached Tiger? It's possible that neither Tiger nor Foley are actually smart enough to see how wrong that partnership is, but maybe playing alongside Stricker for a few days will be a wakeup call - enough tinkering already - just hit the ball!!

-----

On another note:

I think it's a good idea to have Tiger on the team. One simple reason:

Even if Tiger will play that bad (PGA Championship level), he at least takes a lot of pressure off his teammates. If they lose it's because of Tiger, if they win it's despite of Tiger.

(If Tiger plays great and the team wins, it's because of Stricker carrying Tiger and the great team spirit. If they lose it's somehow because of Tiger (somebody will find a reason, I guess).)

[deasy55]

Except the WGCs and the FedEx Cup events

Depends on if you would consider them a big golfing event though...

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

Get real people... Tiger is going to be in every major golfing event that he wants to be in