U.S. Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples will “officially” announce his wildcard picks for this year’s matches on Sept. 27, the Tuesday after the Tour Championship, although he’s already made his intentions clear that one of those picks will go to Tiger Woods.
Which leaves about a half dozen players vying for the final wildcard spot on the American team, including Brandt Snedeker, who moved to 11th on the points list following his tie for third at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
Just don’t expect Snedeker to start second-guessing Couples, regardless of his perilous position on the points list.
“I keep telling myself if I win again there’s no way I won’t be on that team. I have one more event,” he said on Monday at TPC Boston. “Anybody that has a problem as a player with (the picks) they should have played better.”
Behind Snedeker on the list is Bill Haas (12th), the son of assistant captain Jay, Bo Van Pelt (13th), Rickie Fowler (14th) and Zack Johnson (15th), who is the only member of the “next five” that has played on a Presidents Cup team (2007 and 2009).
As for Woods, he remained at 29th on the points list and won’t play again until after the teams are set following the BMW Championship and Couples has made his picks official. Still, Snedeker wasn’t surprised by Couples’ decision to pick the struggling star and anticipates the move will be beneficial for both the U.S. team, which lost the last time the matches were played at Royal Melbourne (1998), and Woods.
“He’s got faith in him and it’s going to do wonders for Tiger and help him to get back to his dominating self, just like it did for Adam Scott (who was a pick for the 2009 matches),” Snedeker said.
