Tiger Woods, Ernie Els Cup captains
News & Trends •
woods who has launched a comeback after his spinal fusion surgery a year ago finished joint runner-up by one shot last week at the valspar championship1 tiger woods and ernie els shifted their decades-long friendly rivalry onto the international stage as they were officially named captains for the 2019 presidents cup on tuesday1 they will lead their teams to australia1 australia will host the 2019 edition of the cup from dec. 12 to dec. 15 at royal melbourne1 the announcement was made in the latrobe room at bay hill site of this weeks arnold palmer invitational on the pga tour1 els and woods have frequently shared golfs main stage1 four-times major winner els of south africa has been runner-up to woods seven times in his professional playing career including twice in majors the u.s. and british open in 20001 woods and els served as captains assistants in the 2017 presidents cup1 then the 12-man u.s. team won 19-11 at liberty national in new jersey for their 10th cup victory against one loss and one draw in the biennial event1 els and woods also shared an iconic moment at the 2003 presidents cup when they faced off in a sudden-death playoff to decide the competition1 they battled evenly through three tension-packed playoff holes before failing light forced officials to declare the event in south africa a draw1 tiger and i have had some great duels in the past and i look forward to the challenge of going against my longtime friend yet again in 2019 said els1 els might even have to stomach woods once again wielding a golf club in the matchplay competition1 woods holds the match-play competitions record with 24 match wins for the u.s. and els has won an international side best 20 matches1 he said on tuesday with a smile that he had thought about a possible playing captaincy1 the 42-year-old american acknowledged there was a lot of time and a lot of golf to go before the teams are set1 thats a bridge thats a long way away from now to be crossing but if it does come to that point it wont just be my decision it will be a collaborative effort what is best for the team said woods1 pga tour commissioner jay monahan said having contemporary giants such as woods and els captain the presidents cup teams could have a huge impact on the event and the game of golf1 i think its huge for two reasons. one theyre going to bring the world at large to the presidents cup as they have done every time that theyre competing on a global stage he said1 and in doing so theyre likely going to be bringing forward future stars1 we dont know who is going to come forward between now and then but its likely that stars from new countries are going to come with ernie els and tiger woods leading their respective teams1 so i think its just going to take the game deeper and wider than its ever been1 in addition to the naming of the captains two format changes were announced1 each player will only be required to play one match prior to the final-round singles instead of two as in past competitions1 also the top eight players for the international and u.s. team standings will automatically qualify following completion of the 2019 tour championship1 captains will later select four wild-card picks instead of the two they had previously1 this will be the third presidents cup to be held at venerable royal melbourne designed by alister mackenzie who also designed augusta national.reutersnan1