Breaking Down the 2011 President’s Cup Pairings

Let’s break down the President’s Cup pairings like a fraction:

USA

Paul Azinger hit on a great system – the “Pod system” of keeping groups of four players together. Couples has one problem. Since he insists on Woods, then either Woods’s partner (Furyk) or one of Phil’s boys (Ricky Fowler) gets left home. My opinion is that if he takes Woods he really can’t take Fowler and must take Furyk since Tiger’s report card since 1st grade has always read “Does not play well with others” (Hat tip: Peter Kostis) and he seems to only like Furyk. He’s his favorite doubles partner. With that in mind…

Group 1

Stricker – Mickelson
Dustin Johnson- Webb Simpson

This is the A team. You can also switch to Mickelson-Simpson, Stricker-DJ. Ride that like Animal Kingdom all the way to the champagne victory celebration.

Group 2

Woods-Furyk
Kuchar-Watney

Woods has a man crush on “Jimbo” despite his lackluster r4ecord in match play. Furyk is gritty though. Kuchar and Watney are getting better all the time.

Group 3

Hunter Mahan-Bubba Watson
Bill Haas-David Toms

Mahan and Watson need protection. That’s a .500 pairing on paper. Toms and Haas are Yawn and Snore.

INTERNATIONALS

This is easy as well. Look how this breaks down evenly.

Group 1 – South Africa

Els – Oosthuizen
Goosen Schwartzel

Turn this into a spelling bee and watch the Americans lose. Can you spell West-hay-zen without looking?

Group 2 – Australia

Adam Scott-Jason Day
Geoff Ogilvy-Aaron Baddelly

Scott and Day will be a force of nature together. Ogilvy helped do restoration work on the course, he knows every blade of grass.

Group 3 – Asia

Yang-Kim
Choi-Ishikawa

There you have it. When you write out my royalty check, remember there’s two “m”s in my last name.