The Presidents Cup has been an incredible spectacle for golf fans these past two days. After the first day’s dominance by Team USA, Friday and Saturday were much more tense and competitive. Team International has jumped into the competition, fully immersing themselves in the exhilarating battle for the highly coveted trophy. However, much might know that the tension of the Presidents Cup is no stranger to Tiger Woods.
Recently, the 15-time major champion spoke about how nerve-wracking playing in the team tournament was for him. Recounting to the 2003 Presidents Cup playoff against Ernie Els, he said, “The most nerve-wracking experience I’ve had was going into the playoff with Ernie Els in South Africa. I read my par putt from behind the ball and all I could see was a sea of red.”
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Confused? Well, the sea of red were the members of Team USA, all standing across from him beyond the green. The team in that tournament included Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Jack Nicklaus, and Davis Love III. Although the match ended with Woods making the putt and tying Els on three playoff holes, the cup, however, was shared that year by mutual decision by the teams (17-17).
Woods also went on to say exactly why he was so nervous at the time and said that he had faced pressure situations before as an individual but being in that position where the team was depending on him was intense, he said, “I miss this putt and lose it for all of them. And that is an experience that I have never felt as an individual. Missing for all of them added a totally different element of pressure.”
Indeed, the Presidents Cup somewhat regained the intense competitiveness of the Tiger Woods era. Going into the final day of the tournament, the tension will be extremely high. Moreover, this intense rivalry forming in the tournament was seen when Tom Kim alleged that there were some players throwing curses at him.
Tom Kim alleges unsportsmanlike behavior
After the day was over, Tom Kim alleged that some Team USA players were cursing at him after the match finished. Admitting that the day got rather feisty, he said, “as it got towards the end, it got a little feisty out there. I could hear some players cursing at us. That part wasn’t really – I don’t think there’s good sportsmanship there.”
In their press conference, Schauffele and Cantlay said that they didn’t hear anything like that themselves and said they tried to be competitive without crossing the line. However, the whole tournament has now turned more competitive and appreciably so. Woods himself had dominated the Presidents Cup in his career. Now with him not playing as big a part, we may get to see some more ground gained by the International team.
