Golf-Woods sparked by younger generation in Presidents Cup (Reuters)
September 28, 2009
LOS ANGELES, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Tiger Woods, fresh from his$10-million pay day for winning the FedExCup, said he wasenergised by the mix of younger players in the U.S. squad fornext month’s Presidents Cup.
Woods, who missed last year’s Ryder Cup recovering fromreconstructive knee surgery, said on Monday that the Americanswere switching to a new generation for team golf.
“I certainly wish I could have been a part of that team lastyear,” Woods, 33, said about the U.S. ending a nine-year RyderCup drought against Europe with a team including six rookies.
“There was a different kind of chemistry last year. We had amix of older players and some younger guys in their 20s,” hetold a news conference promoting his foundation’s WorldChallenge tournament in December.
“Over the years, usually I’ve been the youngest one.”
Woods said the new kind of U.S. team would again be ondisplay against the Internationals in the Presidents Cup matchesin San Francisco starting on Oct. 8.
“This Presidents Cup is different. Lucas (Glover, the U.S.Open winner) and Sean (O’Hair) and AK (Anthony Kim) and Hunter(Mahan)—it’s a mixed generation of players.
“It’s going to be fun to be part of a team that’s young likethat, and also we’ve got Kenny (Perry) who is 49 now. I thinkwe’ve got a great mix of players.”
CHANGING GUARD
Woods, who has played in five Ryder Cup and five PresidentsCup teams, said the mix represented a changing of the guard.
“You can see the generation leaving us now, with Freddie(Couples, the U.S. captain) and Davis (Love) not making theteams.
“They’re at that age now they’re not going to be part of theteams … so this is another generation of players. So it’sgoing to be fun to be a part of that.”
Woods said he was also curious to see Couples as captain.
“I’m looking forward to see how Freddie speaks in front ofall of us,” Woods said. “As you know, Freddie starts in onedirection and ends in another. It will be interesting to seewhat kind of tangents he goes on.”
The Presidents Cup experience should also be enlivened bythe presence of former basketball great Michael Jordan, who willbe one of Couples’s assistants.
“It will be fun,” Woods said about having golf buddy Jordanaround. “I’ve been a part of several Ryder Cup teams whereMichael has come and hung out with us a couple nights here andthere but he’s never been instrumental and part of the team.
“This will be different. A lot of the guys are lookingforward to getting to know him. Geez, probably him and MuhammadAli are the top two greatest athletes that’s ever lived. It willbe fun for the entire team to hang out with him.”
(Writing by Larry Fine in New York, Editing by Ed Osmond; Toquery or comment on this story emailsportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
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