And right from the get-go fans have let him have it before and after each shot. Cries of “Get in the bunker!” among others have been heard frequently.
At one point during the Day 2 action, Reed did a mock shovel motion twice with his putter after draining a putt, in response to the continued barbs.
And during the afternoon matches of Day 3, we get this: A Golf Channel report that Reed’s caddie, Kessler Karain, got into it with a fan. Karain is also Reed’s brother-in-law.
Perhaps the continued heckling has affected Reed. He has gone 0-3 so far before being sidelined by captain Tiger Woods for the Day 3 foursomes.
Details were scant as to exactly what kind of altercation took place.
Golf Channel’s Steve Sands reported that the PGA Tour and security are aware of the incident. Another report said that Reed will meet with Tour commissioner Jay Monahan before the day is over.
The Internationals extended their lead over Tiger Woods and the Americans during Saturday morning’s four-ball matches at the Presidents Cup.
For the third consecutive day in Australia the Internationals dominated the Americans.
Entering Saturday’s morning (Friday night in North America) four-ball session with a 6½-3½ lead at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, the Internationals put the pressure on with another stellar day of play to extend their lead after winning the session 2-1-1. At the start of afternoon foursomes, the Internationals lead 9-5.
After earning two points alongside playing captain Tiger Woods in the first two days, Justin Thomas remained hot, earning a third point and the day’s first alongside Rickie Fowler, 3 and 2, over Haotong Li and Marc Leishman.
The Closer. 🇺🇸@JustinThomas34 continues his dominance in 🇦🇺.
“That’s why we’re on this team,” Thomas said to Golf Channel in response to why the big moments bring out the best in his game. “That’s why we play, why we chose professional golf as our careers. We want that putt.”
Known as Captain America for his strong play in team events, Patrick Reed has yet to win a point for Team USA in this year’s competition, and has struggled in recent team events since earning the nickname. Reed and Webb Simpson dropped their third match of the event, losing to C.T. Pan and Hideki Matsuyama, 5 and 3. Pan and Matsuyama never trailed, and Simpson won the lone two holes for the Americans in the match.
When paired with Jordan Spieth in either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup, Reed is 8-1-3. He’s 0-7-0 with anyone else.
The MVP of the event thus far has undoubtedly been Abraham Ancer. The Presidents Cup rookie has dominated on the greens en route to a perfect 3-0 for Ernie Els and the Internationals, earning another win with a clutch putt alongside fellow rookie Sungjae Im, defeating Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, 3 and 2.
Just six holes were won in the final match of the morning between the Internationals’ Byeong-Hun An/Adam Scott and Americans’ Tony Finau/Matt Kuchar. Team USA held a brief three-hole 1 up advantage on the front nine, and a Kuchar missed putt from three feet on No. 15 gave the Internationals a late 1 up lead with three to play.
On the 17th hole, An made a 20-foot birdie putt, but Finau followed suit to take the match to the 18th hole, where he made birdie once again to earn the half point.
After the morning session, Woods and Els made their selections for the Day 3 afternoon foursomes matches, where Woods will be on the bench once again. You can catch all the action on Golf Channel from 3 p.m. ET Friday – 2 a.m. ET Saturday, and again on the replay from 2:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET Saturday on NBC.
Day 3 of the 2019 Presidents Cup continues on Saturday in Melbourne, Friday night in North America. Here are the pairings and tee times.
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Day 3 of the 2019 Presidents Cup continues on Saturday in Melbourne, Friday night in North America.
The morning wave consisted of four four-ball matches. The afternoon matches will go back to the foursomes format. As they did this morning, each team will field four pairs.
Here are the pairings, as announced by U.S. Captain Tiger Woods and International Captain Ernie Els:
Dustin Johnson, Gary Woodland (U.S.) vs. Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Scott (International)
Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler (U.S.) vs. Marc Leishman, Abraham Ancer (International)
Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay (U.S.) vs. Cameron Smith, Sungjae Im (International)
Matt Kuchar, Tony Finau (U.S.) vs. Byeong-Hun An, Joaquin Niemann (International)
That means Woods will again not play. Joining him on the sidelines will be Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson.
The Internationals will not play Haotong Li, Adam Hadwin and C.T. Pan.
At the conclusion of this marathon Day 3, captains Woods and Els will gather with their vice captains in the media center once again and announce selections for the final day, which features 12 singles matches on Sunday (Saturday night in North America).
Saturday, Dec. 14 in Melbourne
1 p.m./9 p.m. ET Friday: Fourth round, foursomes.
TV: 3 p.m. Friday – 2 a.m. ET Saturday, Golf Channel; 2:30 – 6 p.m. ET Saturday, NBC (replay)
Immediately following play: Captains’ pairings for Sunday’s singles matches announced.
Sunday, Dec. 15 in Melbourne
10 a.m. local time/6 p.m. ET Saturday: Final round, singles matches.
Dates: Dec. 12-15. Venue: Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Length: 7,055 yards. Par: 71. Points needed to win: 15½. Defending champion: United States. Series: United States leads, 10-1-1.
Eenie Els said he’s using 15th Club, a team of golf professionals, data experts and software engineers who apply intelligence to data.
MELBOURNE, Australia – Ernie Els might be sitting on the biggest secret in golf since Ben Hogan.
For those scoring at home, Hogan’s secret was in the dirt; as for Els, his secret he says is safe “until Sunday night,” but he’s already revealed that he’s using 15th Club, a team of golf professionals, data experts and software engineers who apply intelligence to data and helped 2018 European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn to win back the Cup.
It is a golden age for number crunchers in sports — the book and Oscar-nominated movie “Moneyball” gave advanced analytics mainstream acceptance. It slowly has infiltrated golf, a game overrun by numbers and statistics, and “stats guys” are becoming as important to tour pros as swing instructors and fitness trainers are. They parse statistics to create better training plans and arm the golfers with game plans for each week. Since 2016, both Ryder Cup captains have had their own stat team.
“It’s just the way the world is going these days,” said International Team assistant captain Geoff Ogilvy. “I think with so much information we have, you’d be silly not to access that. There’s been good results from other guys, other teams, and others doing it this way. So far, so good. I think everyone really is liking the process, if you like.”
Indeed, they are. The International Team, which has a 1-10-1 record in the Presidents Cup, grabbed a 6½-3½ lead after Day 2. Els has the unenviable task of trying to unite players from nine countries and five different continents. He instituted a series of team gatherings as early as the 2018 U.S. Open, and created a new International shied as a team logo. (It’s the backdrop on his iPhone case.) But the most notable move has been his reliance on data analytics in forming his pairings rather than going more on gut and feel and the so-called “eye test.”
The old method essentially was a formula of pairing existing friendships, players from the same country or else based on past experience.
Captain Ernie Els at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
“The numbers haven’t shown exactly what I expected. It’s funny. A lot of the personalities I wanted together; the data shows they are not compatible,” Els told pgatour.com. “To convey that to the players has been tough. As you can expect, certain players want to play together — but I can show them if it is not compatible. Now the good thing is the guys are taking that in and actually listening to me whereas in previous years guys were quite adamant who they wanted to play with.”
Els paired five of his rookies with five veterans in the first four-ball session, putting Adam Scott with Ben An and Louis Ooshthuizen with Abraham Ancer, for instance, and turning them into formidable teams. But something in the data – so far it’s a secret – led Els to recast all five of his pairings for foursomes. He will send out repeat four-ball pairings on Day 3 in Scott-An and Hideki Matsuyama-C.T. Pan.
“Preparation, it is the old cliché. You just have got to prepare, have a good plan and try to install that in the team,” Els said. “We are not as deep as they are so we know we have had to come up with some good pairings.”
“As far as the team, everyone’s bought in completely,” Ogilvy said. “Everybody believes that they are with the right guy and everybody’s out in the right groups and the captain’s got a plan.”
Golf’s deep dive into advanced statistics got jump started with the creation of the Strokes Gained statistics in 2011, and others have followed in mining the data collected every week on ShotLink, the PGA Tour’s real-time scoring system that uses sophisticated measuring devices to track every shot by every player. That data can reveal a player’s strengths and weaknesses, provide structure to practices and evaluate how a player’s game stacks up with a particular tournament venue. U.S. Captain Tiger Woods said he has “delved into” advance analytics, too, saying, “you can see tendencies and you can see things that you probably didn’t see prior to that, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to turn it over to the athletes.”
So far, the players Els has entrusted to play together based on data have taken the ball and run to a 3-point lead.
Day 3 of the 2019 Presidents Cup is Saturday in Melbourne, Friday night in North America. After two days of competition, the International team leads 6½-3½. The Americans trailed 4-1 after the Day 1 four-ball matches. Day 3 brings another round of …
Day 3 of the 2019 Presidents Cup is Saturday in Melbourne, Friday night in North America.
After two days of competition, the International team leads 6½-3½. The Americans trailed 4-1 after the Day 1 four-ball matches.
Day 3 brings another round of four-ball. There will be four groups in this wave, as opposed to five in each of the first two days.
Here’s the lineup, as announced by U.S. Captain Tiger Woods and International Captain Ernie Els:
7:02 a.m. local time, 3:02 p.m. ET
Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler (U.S.) vs. Marc Leishman and Haotong Li (International)
7:16 a.m. local time, 3:16 p.m. ET
Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay (U.S.) vs. Sungjae Im and Abraham Ancer (International)
7:30 a.m. local time, 3:30 p.m. ET
Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson (U.S.) vs. Hideki Matsuyama and C.T. Pan (International)
7:44 a.m. local time, 3:44 p.m. ET
Matt Kuchar and Tony Finau (U.S.) vs. Adam Scott and Byeong-Hun An (International)
So Woods is choosing to sit himself as well as Gary Woodland, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson for the four-ball matches.
Ernie Els is sitting Louis Oosthuizen, Joaquin Niemann, Cameron Smith and Adam Hadwin.
Day 3 has two waves of action. Following the morning four-balls, Woods and Els will convene with their teams and vice captains and then announce selections for the Saturday afternoon foursomes. That will also be four teams each.
On the bus ride over to Royal Melbourne, Tiger Woods and his U.S. team sang happy birthday to Rickie Fowler, who turned 31 on Dec. 13.
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He was a late add to the 2019 U.S. Presidents Cup team and was on the sidelines during the Day 1 action at Royal Melbourne.
But at the close of the day on Thursday night in Melbourne, U.S. captain Tiger Woods announced that Rickie Fowler will see action on Day 2.
Fowler will team with Gary Woodland in Thursday’s foursomes. The U.S. pair will square off against Sungjae Im and Cameron Smith. Smtih also sat out the first day.
Fowler was added to the team by Woods three weeks ago when world No. 1 Brooks Koepka announced that he had been forced to withdraw from the Cup while recovering from a knee injury.
On the bus ride over to Royal Melbourne, Woods got up and announced to the team that it was Fowler’s birthday.
The Day 1 pairings were announced by team captains Tiger Woods (U.S.) and Ernie Els (Internationals) on Wednesday at Royal Melbourne.
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The 2019 Presidents Cup is here.
The Day 1 pairings were announced by team captains Tiger Woods (U.S.) and Ernie Els (Internationals) on Wednesday at Royal Melbourne.
Woods deferred the first choice.
Els then announced the selections of Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann.
Woods countered with Justin Thomas and himself, announcing “Tiger Woods” into the microphone.
From there, the captains alternated picks, 10 in all for the five four-ball matches.
First-round pairings
Match 1: Marc Leishman-Joaquin Niemann (Internationals) vs. Justin Thomas-Tiger Woods (U.S.)
Match 2: Xander Schauffele-Patrick Cantlay (U.S.) vs. Adam Hadwin-Sungjae Im (Internationals)
Match 3: Adam Scott and Byeong-Hun An (Internationals) vs. Bryson DeChambeau-Tony Finau (U.S.)
Match 4: Webb Simpson-Patrick Reed (U.S.) vs. Hideki Matsuyama-C.T. Pan (Internationals)
Match 5: Abraham Ancer-Louis Oosthuizen (Internationals) vs. Dustin Johnson-Gary Woodand (U.S.)
This leaves Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar on the sidelines for Team USA on the opening day.
International Team captain Ernie Els listens to captain of the U.S. team Tiger Woods speak during a news conference ahead of the Presidents Cup golf tournament in Melbourne on December 10, 2019.(Photo by William West/AFP via Getty Images)
The Day 1 four-ball format works as follows: Each team consists of two players and each golfer plays his own ball. The lower score among the side is counted for each hole.
Overall, there will be nine matches of foursomes, nine matches of four-ball and 12 singles matches. Each match is worth one point.
The Day 1 action starts 9:30 a.m. local time on Thursday (5:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday). Golf Channel’s live TV coverage starts at 5:30 p.m.
Immediately following Thursday play, the captains will announce pairings for Friday.
More than anything, the team environment at Presidents and Ryder Cups has allowed Tiger Woods to shed his lone-wolf label.
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MELBOURNE, Australia – When the last Presidents Cup was held in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty in 2017, Tiger Woods was recovering from surgery and only permitted to hit 60-degree wedges. His future in the game was very much in doubt. The thought of him as a playing captain just over two years later seemed preposterous.
It was a sad day for golf to see Woods relegated to a cart driver, asking players if they liked mayo or mustard on their sandwich. It was a role that in the past would have seemed beneath someone of his stature in the game. And yet Tiger’s two stints as an assistant captain at the 2016 Ryder Cup and 2017 Presidents Cup may have been critical moments in his revival as both a player and person.
Woods embraced the job of serving as a Team USA pop-pom waver. No job was too small, and he spent countless hours plotting pairings and determining which matchups should go out first. Brandt Snedeker, who was a member of the victorious 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup team, recounted how he spent more than 90 minutes on the phone with Woods one night, and it wasn’t the only time the 15-time major winner dialed him up.
“Got to the point where I was joking around, like ‘You’re calling me more than my wife is right now. We need to figure something out,’ ” Snedeker cracked.
Apparently Woods has evolved to sending early-morning text messages.
“You definitely get more texts between 1 and 4 am than any captain, that’s for sure,” Thomas said. “He takes it very seriously. … It’s like any time we’re together he’s asking me questions, and I’m like, ‘Dude, we already talked about this. You don’t need to go too into it.’ I understand he wants to be so perfect and wants to do all this, but being in Florida and hanging out a decent bit, I’m kind of a good sounding board to where he can kind of ask me some stuff but, no, he’s done a good job.”
The 2019 U.S. Presidents Cup team poses for a team photo at Royal Melbourne Golf Course on December 11, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
More than anything, the team environment allowed Woods to shed his lone-wolf label. For years, the biennial team competitions felt more like a burden than an honor to Woods. Instead, he enjoyed passing on some of his course knowledge to younger players in the pod he managed, such as Patrick Reed, and he even showed he could not only dish out jokes but take one, too. It was Zach Johnson who famously passed out “Make Tiger Great Again” T-shirts to his teammates.
“It’s not the Tiger we knew,” said NBC/Golf Channel commentator Paul Azinger. “He was uncomfortable if you were comfortable with him; now, he’s uncomfortable if you’re not comfortable with him. Tiger didn’t want to let anyone close to him. He came back and reinvented his personality with the players. These guys are so comfortable with him. They love him and he loves them back.”
The friendships that were forged in those team rooms between Woods and Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas led to them calling up Woods and urging him to play with them back home in Jupiter, Florida, as he attempted to resurrect his career. Those rounds prepared Woods for his return to the PGA Tour. Azinger thinks Thomas is Tiger’s best friend on Tour now. These young guns, who grew up idolizing Woods, wanted to go head to head with him and after a Tour Championship, Masters title and Zozo Championship victory they may be regretting what they wished for, but they contributed to making Woods great again.
This week, Woods is the first Presidents Cup playing captain since Hale Irwin in 1994. He’s back in his element in the team room. On the flight from the Bahamas to Alcapulco he yukked it up, playing $100 hands of high card, low card, according to one passenger on the team plane. Drinks were flowing until the plane departed from Alcapulco and Captain Woods laid down the law – no more alcohol for the week. That is, he said, until the victory celebration on Sunday.
