Greg Norman and Tiger WoodsMarcio Jose Sanchez
It wasn't that long ago the Presidents Cup was considered as little more than a confection.
The Ryder Cup contested between teams of 12 players from the United States and Europe was the real deal, having started in 1927. While the Presidents Cup, which started in 1994, between teams from the U.S. and internationals not eligible for the Ryder Cup, was at best a concession to the fact golfers beyond Europe were making an impact.
Things have changed. There's buzz around this year's Presidents Cup, which starts Thursday at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia – one of the game's great courses in one of the world's most concentrated area of top-notch courses.
Royal Melbourne gets the blood flowing, which is why International team member Geoff Ogilvy lives there and enjoys going out in the evening with a half-set of clubs and playing a few holes. The 2011 Presidents Cup is being held at the club's Composite course, 12 holes from the West course, which Augusta National and Cypress Point architect Alister MacKenzie designed, and six from the East, which Alex Russell designed.
The venue is hardly the only reason the competition has been generating interest. The menu includes the Tiger Woods factor, and offers a few tasty items.
As Craig Shankland, a PGA Master teaching professional with Australian roots wrote in an e-mail this week: "I think they want Tiger. The Aussies [Greg Norman, the International captain, is Australian, and five of his 12 players are Australian]want revenge after what has gone on with him. The story will be Tiger, but the rest is they really want to win this thing."
First, came the ongoing controversy over which players U.S. captain Fred Couples would name as his two captain's picks. Couples said in late August he would make Woods one. That was a month before he was required to name his choices.
It drew criticism from Norman; Ogilvy also criticized the selection of the former world No. 1.
Couples chose FedEx Cup winner Bill Haas as his other pick. Keegan Bradley, a rookie who won the PGA Championship (a major) and the Byron Nelson Championship, was therefore left off the U.S. team.
The selection of Woods only ramped up interest in the Presidents Cup, as was apparent on social media such as Twitter.com, Facebook.com and the blogosphere, not to mention "old" media. Golf Channel personnel have debated Couples's choice of Woods almost daily.
It's not as if planet golf needed more reason to delve into all things Woods, or anything Woods. He's been revamping his swing – and life – following the scandal in his private life that was revealed two years ago this month.
With Woods playing in the Presidents Cup, the competition was assured of drawing intense attention. Meanwhile, Woods leads the Australian Open in Sydney by one shot after two rounds. He's obviously making progress.
Then, most recently, the discussion around Woods heated up further. He fired his long-time caddie Steve Williams on July 20, when he said it was time for a change. Woods referred to Williams as an "outstanding caddie and a friend" when he announced the dismissal on his website.
Whatever friendship there has quickly soured. It hit a new low last week, when Williams spoke about his exuberant reaction in an interview with CBS after Adam Scott, for whom he now caddies, won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, in August. It was the first tournament Scott and Woods were both playing since Woods dropped Williams.
"It was my aim to shove it right up that black [expletive]" Williams said of what he was attempting to do with his reaction. He soon apologized on his website, and Woods said in Sydney this week they'd spoken, the remark was "hurtful" and they'd move on.
The move could be towards one another at Royal Melbourne.
Scott, a member of the International team, and Woods could face each other in any of the matches. A panting golf world hopes this will ensue, especially on the final day, when the singles matches will be held.
Then, there's Norman, one of the world's best golfers for years, and one of its most polarizing figures.
He said Scott shouldn't fire Williams for his remark. Couples, though, said if Williams were his caddy, he'd have given him the hook.
The war of words is leading directly to what promises to be a pitched contest at Royal Melbourne.
These outside factors have neutralized what has been the Presidents Cup's primary liability: the International team represents a variety of countries, rather than a single country or continent. The U.S. vs. Europe at the Ryder Cup produces a natural rivalry; the U.S. vs. the Internationals, most of whom live in the U.S. and play the PGA Tour full-time, hasn't coalesced into a natural rivalry.
And yet, a rivalry has been percolating, primarily because the International team has something to prove. It's won only one Presidents Cup, in 1998, at Royal Melbourne. The U.S. has won six of the eight competitions (there's been one tie).
With each Presidents Cup, the International side feels like a group that wants to convince the globe that world-class golfers en masse exist beyond the U.S. and Europe.
There's no reason the 2011 Presidents Cup shouldn't be close.
The International side includes three Presidents Cup rookies, while the U.S. has six. Jason Day, an Aussie, tied for second in this year's Masters, was second in the U.S. Open and is ranked seventh in the world. U.S. rookies Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, and Bubba Watson played in the 2010 Ryder Cup.
The Presidents Cup will have wall-to-wall television coverage, much of it in prime time in North America.
Scott, for one, provided a hint of how important this Presidents Cup has become when he had an advance look at Royal Melbourne last week. Players usually visit courses in advance for major championships.
This Presidents Cup has "major" written all over it.
ALSO FROM LORNE RUBENSTEIN:
John Daly's act is getting old
What was Steve Williams thinking
Mike Weir lamens unfinished business at Presidents Cup
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Lorne Rubenstein has written a golf column for The Globe and Mail since 1980. He has played golf since the early 1960s and was the Royal Canadian Golf Association's first curator of its museum and library at the Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario and the first editor of Score, Canada's Golf Magazine, where he continues to write a column and features. He has won four first-place awards from the Golf Writers Association of America, one National Magazine Award in Canada, and, most recently, he won the award for the best feature in 2009 from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. Lorne has written 11 books, including The Natural Golf Swing, with George Knudson (1988); Links: An Insider's Tour Through the World of Golf (1990); The Swing, with Nick Price (1997); The Fundamentals of Hogan, with David Leadbetter (2000); A Season in Dornoch: Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands (2001); Mike Weir: The Road to the Masters (2003); A Disorderly Compendium of Golf, with Jeff Neuman (2006); and his latest, This Round's on Me (2009). He is a member of the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. Lorne can be reached at rube@sympatico.ca . You can now follow him on Twitter @lornerubenstein