The opening session of the Presidents Cup on Thursday at Royal Melbourne is guaranteed to be filled with firsts. Of the 12 teams put out by captains Fred Couples and Greg Norman, 10 have never competed together in these matches.
Only the teams in the anchor match - Tiger Woods-Steve Stricker and Adam Scott and K.J. Choi - have been previously paired. Scott and Choi have a 1-1 record together in a pair of fourball matches, winning, 5 and 4, over Jerry Kelly and Kenny Perry in 2003, and losing, 2 and 1, to Stricker and Scott Verplank at Royal Melbourne in ’07.
Woods and Stricker went undefeated in four matches at Harding Park in 2009. Their combined record together (Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup) is a stout 6-1, suffering their lone loss to Lee Westwood and Luke Donald in an alternate shot match at Celtic Manor last fall.
Captain Couples does have one other team which has been together. Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk lost their lone match as a duo, falling to the stout duo of Sergio Garcia and Jesper Parnevik in the ’99 Ryder Cup.
Given Mickelson and Furyk’s combined 31 appearances representing the United States, the rarity of this pairing is all the more remarkable.
Watch wall-to-wall coverage of the Presidents Cup live on Golf Channel beginning Monday at 6PM. Tournament air times: Golf Channel Wednesday 9PM-2AM, Thursday 7:30PM-2AM, Friday 3PM-2AM and Saturday 6:30PM-12:30AM. NBC coverage Saturday at 8AM and Sunday at noon. (Note: all times are ET)
