"I’m for it. I think it’s a good thing," Stricker, a Wisconsin native, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an article published Sunday. "I don’t know why Greg said what he did. He did basically the same thing with Adam Scott a couple years ago when Adam wasn’t playing well. It kind of turned Adam's game around. So I don’t know where that came from."
Norman, skipper of the International team that will meet the U.S. in next month’s competition in Australia, recently dissed Couples for making the winless and oft-injured Woods a wild-card pick. He was hardly alone in questioning Couples’ judgment, as Capt. Fred has heard it from all sides for choosing the former ace over PGA champ Keegan Bradley.
Stricker, however, believes Woods will more than rise to the occasion, as he so often has.
"I think it’s great," Stricker said. "I talk to Tiger through texting every now and then. He’s really excited. We’re looking forward to it.
"I think he’ll be ready, too. He’ll find a way to get it done," added Stricker, who paired with Woods for a 4-0 run through the 2009 Presidents Cup and notched a 2-1 record with him when they partnered during last year’s Ryder Cup. "When you play him one on one, he’ll find a way. Just like at the Ryder Cup last year. He trounced the guy he was playing [Francesco Molinari of Italy, 4 and 3, in singles]. He loves match play."
While Woods has apparently recovered from his most recent leg injuries, Stricker is still dealing with his own physical woes. Weakness in his left arm from a herniated disk in his neck caused him to withdraw after two rounds of the BMW Championship in September, but he played the following week and finished 15th in the FedEx Cup finale Tour Championship.
Stricker said his neck was better, thanks to work with a chiropractor and "rest, traction, and strengthening exercises," according to the Sentinel, which noted he may eventually undergo surgery to repair the disk. While Bradley remained a long shot to make the trip Down Under should Stricker be unable to play, a long-time friend of Stricker’s told us recently that nothing would keep the world’s fourth-ranked golfer from playing in the Presidents Cup.
Stricker confirmed that sentiment with the Sentinel. "My arm would have to be falling off for me not to play," he said.
Scott, by the way, did not do much for his ’09 Presidents Cup team, going 1-4-0. But he was able to build on the confidence Norman showed in him by coming out strong the following season. After making just nine cuts in 19 events in 2009, Scott posted one win, seven top-10 finishes, and made 14 cuts in 18 events in his 2010 PGA Tour season.
It would be difficult for Woods to perform any better at this year’s Presidents Cup than he did last time around, but he has a long way to go to rebound in the regular 2012 season as Scott did in 2010. Woods missed only three of 21 cuts in the past two seasons, but he’s plummeted from No. 1 in the world golf rankings to No. 56 and has only four top 10s since his six-win season in 2009.
Source from : Waggle Room
No comments:
Post a Comment