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MELBOURNE, Australia – It was anything but a silent night as the U.S. team flew from the Bahamas to Australia for this week’s Presidents Cup, a 10,000-mile journey clocking in at just a bit more than 26 hours.
Sure, in the dead of the night, the players, vice captains, caddies and others caught a few winks on the decked out aircraft. A refueling stop in Mexico allowed the players to stretch their legs a bit, as well. But for the most part, to hear how playing captain Tiger Woods put it, there was plenty of tom foolery going on up in the air.
“Up front there was a nice, open area where guys could mingle and have fun,” Woods said Tuesday in his opening news conference with Internationals captain Ernie Els. “There was a lot of card playing, a lot of trash talking, a lot of needling.
“It was nonstop, literally nonstop, for over a day.”
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And now it will take more than a day after the Americans landed at 12:30 p.m. local time on Monday for them to get their bodies acclimated to Australian time, a 16-hour time difference from the east coast of the states.
“We’re still feeling it,” Woods said at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. “I mean, I know I am. We’ll hit that wall sometime this afternoon and got to push through it and get through the gala dinner tonight. I think by (Wednesday) afternoon, we should all start feeling pretty good.
“Today is an important day for us to just walk and to stretch our legs a bit. Getting in yesterday after a 26-hour ride in a luxurious tin can, it’s nice to actually get out there and feel some fresh air.”
Woods looked a bit groggy for his 8 a.m. presser. The day before, less than six hours off the plane, he didn’t look up to speed, either, at the kickoff of the Presidents Cup Fan Experience on the Melbourne River Walk.
Woods dumped two balls into the Yarra River as he tried to hit a floating green just 75 yards in the distance.
“I’m a bit slow, right now,” Woods said with a smile.
Wood and the rest of the team began to get their legs back under them with practice rounds Tuesday. Woods was grouped with Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Reed.
In addition to getting ready as a player, Woods is on point as a captain and has already addressed his team’s role of being a huge favorite in the biennial matches. The U.S. is 10-1-1 in the series and this year’s team has all 12 members ranked in the top 25 in the world.
But Woods was on the U.S. team that lost here at Royal Melbourne in 1998. He’s making sure his team isn’t overly confident.
“I think our strength is that we are a very deep team,” Woods said. “The guys have played well this entire year, and you know, we had 11 out of 12 guys play last week (at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas), so it was nice for them to shake off some rust. Get a feel for things.
“Each and every Cup, each and every tournament we play in around the world, starts out at zero and this one is the same.”
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