Couples On Picking Tiger: "He's the best player in the world forever."

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An unbylined AP report was the first to report Fred Couples' answer to a simple question at the Boeing Classic: Tiger's one of his two Presidents Cup picks. Here's the exchange:

Q.  A question on The Presidents Cup.  Do you talk to Tiger ever?  You mention that you'd like to see him play.  Where does that stand as far as your thoughts on it?

FRED COUPLES:  Yeah, well, I mean, it stands where I told him that he's going to be on the team.  I kind of told ‑‑ the question came up, and there's no reason for me to wait until September 26th to pick Tiger.  He's the best player in the world forever.  I mean, you guys ‑‑ is he playing well right now, no.  He almost won Augusta three months, four months ago, so you don't do that by playing poor golf.

Jason Sobel shreds Couples for the decision to add Woods and also suspects the PGA Tour is happy with the selection.

By picking Tiger – who ranks smack dab between Kevin Na and D.A. Points at 28th in the current standings – Freddie won’t necessarily afford his team the best chance to win, but certainly ensures the competition will receive more attention than had he selected any of the aforementioned players.

And therein lies the dirty little secret about the Presidents Cup.

While the Ryder Cup is a storied, ferocious rivalry between country and continent, its less embattled younger cousin is more about pomp and circumstance, professional golf’s version of a hit-and-giggle festival at your local country club.

Don’t believe it? Just ask Lanny Wadkins, who once said of the Presidents Cup, "Why would I want to travel halfway around the world to play a bunch of guys from Orlando?"

Farrell Evans also suspects "The Man" got to Couples, but he still criticizes the choice in a letter to the Captain.

I get nepotism, cronyism and all the ways that we help out our friends and family. But what I don't get is why you would pick a guy who has been hurt for most of the year and who has played only eight PGA Tour events and had two top-10s.

Do you want the players to resent Tiger more than they already do? Golf is supposed to be the ultimate meritocracy. So what do you say to Mark Wilson and Keegan Bradley, who have both won twice this year, if you leave them off the team? One of those guys is not going to make the cut.

Playoff System Designed To Ensure Tiger Woods Makes It To The Final Weekend Begins Without Tiger Woods

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Just remember over the next four weeks: every time we get a rundown of the points permutations, FedExCup standings, points resets, whiteboard scenarios and other geeky nonsense, this was a points system built around making sure one person would be playing right up to the final weekend at East Lake.
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Capitalist Phil Suggests America Look To Communist China For Job Growth Inspiration!

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It was one of those moments you watch and think, why am I watching the Golf Channel tag along with Barclays CEO Bob Diamond and Five Guys franchisee Phil Mickelson as they bumped fists with the Charlie Foxes of the world staring at their stock monitors and in general, sell you on the wonders of this week's sponsor. 
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Phil: "We've outlawed the paddle grip for crying out loud, I don't know why; that was legal for three decades."

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Alex Myers focused on Phil's comments today on not ruling out the belly putter, but I of course was jumping for joy when he noted that the USGA did outlaw the dreaded, horrible, blatantly criminal paddle grip, which was nothing more than a slight indentation at the top of the grip, and all because putting geniuses Stockton, Archer and Crenshaw used one. (Actually that's not entirely true, but I just wanted to get a nasty email from Frank Hannigan at some point today.)
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Robert Allenby Does The Humane Thing And Fires His Caddies

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Ben Everill reports that the Aussie has dropped his "shared-duty" caddies (one can only take so many weeks in a row with the man?) and has replaced them wtih Robert Floyd, son of Ray, who is very open about his recent troubles with alcohol and year of court-ordered house arrest that has him lugging not only Allenby's baggage...err...bag, but an ankle bracelet too.
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Plainfield's Risky Finish

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Larry Dorman examines the big twist at Donald Ross' Plainfield for The Barclays: the driveable 18th. Always the weak link in an otherwise fantastic design, Dorman tells the backstory of the decision to move it up as made by Gil Hanse with the PGA Tour's Steve Wenzloff doing all of the explaining at headquarters for the skeptical Oxford shirt set.
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Two-And-A-Half Minutes Of Your Life You Won't Get Back: Dustin Johnson Dresses Up In A FedEx Uniform

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This is painfully awkward on so many levels.

Warning, this is only for terminally ill readers seeking ways to prolong their lives.

"Ogilvie also understands that it's time for him to be more candid about his future interests in a job currently held by Tim Finchem."

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Joe Ogilvie tells Jeffri Chadiha that the players "have a perfectly great commissioner right now in Tim" but "eventually Tim is going to retire." And with that, he officially lets it be known he would be interested in the job.
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