Veteran Singh senses Presidents Cup upset by Internationals
SAN FRANCISCO: Virtually all the signs point toward yet another United States victory at this week's Presidents Cup, but Internationals stalwart Vijay Singh has a feeling he and his teammates could pull off an upset.
"Our guys are really fired up and I think we are going to have a good week," Fijian Singh said at a sun-splashed Harding Park Golf Course on Monday.
"We have a great team this year and it's all about momentum. If a team has great momentum, they're going to putt well and it's going to hit great shots. Picking the right combinations will be key."
Collective form this season, Cup history and comparative world ranking strength combine to make the US team heavy favorites for this week's matches starting on Thursday.
The Americans have never lost on home soil and they will be seeking to win the trophy for a sixth time in eight editions of the biennial team competition.
On top of that, the US ended a run of three defeats in the Ryder Cup with a commanding victory over Europe last year, giving them another jolt of confidence in the matchplay team format.
"The Americans are riding really high at the moment," said Singh, the only Internationals player to have competed in every Presidents Cup.
"They've done well in the FedEx Cup, they had a lot more wins on the regular (PGA) Tour and they are all up there in the world rankings."
"Everything is clicking for them at the moment and they will be a hard team to beat," three-time major winner Singh said. "They've got the Cup and they have a very relaxed captain as well in Freddy Couples."
The Americans have five players in the top 10 while the Internationals have only one - 10th-ranked Australian Geoff Ogilvy.
US team: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Kenny Perry, Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink, Sean O'Hair, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard, Lucas Glover and Hunter Mahan. International team: Geoff Ogilvy, Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas, Retief Goosen, Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera, Mike Weir, Robert Allenby, Yang Yong-eun, Tim Clark, Ryo Ishikawa and Adam Scott.
Reuters
(China Daily 10/07/2009 page11)
