Woody Austin Interview - Golf

If you remember my golf quotes of 2007 post you will have seen poor old Woody Austin falling in the water at the presidents cup tournament. Woody has become something of a cult hero so I thought I would post the great little interview with Woody regarding his new found fame.

Did you ever think that the secret to finding real fame was simply, "Just add water"?
No, obviously I didn't. I always knew I had it in me, I just didn't know the ingredient to get it out.

What exactly were you doing in that water? Couldn't you just have said to your partner, David Toms, "I'm ball in pocket. Carry me"?
Well, see, he was ball in pocket. He hit it in the water way back and then his third shot didn't even hit the green. Rory was on the (par-4 14th) green in one.

I was thinking if I could just get the ball out of the water and around the green, I could chip in for 3.

Everyone laughs at the silliness of it. Did you learn anything from the day?
I don't know if finishing birdie, birdie, birdie is silly. I was pretty serious. What it shows is that people see me react to something and think I'm lost (in anger), but I'm not. I'm quick to get my head back into it.

You've said Phil Mickelson "ripped the crap out of me" for 24 hours after you took your dive.
(Laughs) He was on me nonstop from Tuesday all the way through Sunday. What happened on Friday only made it easier for him.

Was he giving you grief before the dive?
I don't know if it was initiation, or the fact that we get along so good that he knew I could take it. The first thing that happened is he took a game off me in Ping-Pong. Well, this was my first time. I didn't realize how serious the Ping-Pong was. He kept on about it: "No competition, you aren't worth my time, blah, blah, blah." And then on Friday, he was the one who called me Aquaman.

Did you get him back at Ping-Pong?
Oh, yeah. I beat him three straight.

You've said that most of the team were serious Pongers. Who else did you beat?
Tiger never played me. He only played Phil. They have like a running tab. I think Tiger beat him. I know it was best three out of five, and it went all five. I kept wanting to play him and he said, 'No, I can't beat you so I won't play you.' We (Woods and Austin) were good partners, though. We called ourselves the Woodys.

What's the best line you heard?
Barbara Nicklaus the next morning (Saturday). She was sitting at the breakfast table and on the front of the sports page was my face in the water, and she looked up and said, "Everybody wants to know: Did you catch the salmon or not?"

You can read the rest of this golf interview here

Presidents Cup Wrap - Team USA wins

Unfortunately due to the difference in the time zones between Canada and Australia I didn't get to watch a whole lot of the presidents cup live, but I did enjoy what I did get to see. As much as it pains me to say it my prediction for the cup was correct. The win will go down as their first away from US soil, but I hardly think that Canada is exactly away soil!

Overview of each day and event of the tournament:

Thursday Foursomes

US Team

International Team

Status

Stricker/Mahan

Scott/Ogilvy

USA wins 3 and 2

Mickelson/Austin

Singh/Weir

AS

Cink/Johnson

Sabbatini/Immelman

USA wins 1 up

Toms/Furyk

Els/Cabrera

USA wins 1 up

Glover/Verplank

Appleby/Goosen

USA wins 2 up

Woods/Howell III

Choi/O'Hern

USA wins 3 and 1

Friday Four-Ball

US Team

International Team

Status

Mickelson/Mahan

Cabrera/Goosen

INT wins 1 up

Woods/Furyk

Singh/Appleby

INT wins 5 and 4

Johnson/Howell III

Els/Weir

INT wins 3 and 1

Stricker/Verplank

Scott/Choi

USA wins 2 and 1

Cink/Glover

Ogilvy/O'Hern

INT wins 1 up

Austin/Toms

Immelman/Sabbatini

AS

Saturday Foursomes

US Team

International Team

Status

Stricker/Mahan

Immelman/Sabbatini

USA wins 2 up

Mickelson/Austin

Goosen/Appleby

USA wins 5 and 4

Woods/Furyk

Scott/Els

USA wins 4 and 3

Glover/Verplank

Singh/Weir

USA wins 2 and 1

Johnson/Toms

O'Hern/Ogilvy

USA wins 2 and 1

Cink/Howell III

Cabrera/Choi

8:30 am

Saturday Four-Ball

US Team

International Team

Status

Cink/Furyk

Cabrera/Choi

USA wins 1 up

Mickelson/Austin

Scott/Goosen

AS

Howell III/Glover

Weir/Els

INT wins 4 and 2

Stricker/Mahan

Singh/Appleby

INT wins 1 up

Woods/Toms

O'Hern/Ogilvy

USA wins 5 and 3

Johnson/Verplank

Sabbatini/Immelman

1:30 pm

Sunday Singles

US Team

International Team

Status

Scott Verplank

Rory Sabbatini

USA wins 2 and 1

Lucas Glover

Ernie Els

INT wins 2 up

Phil Mickelson

Vijay Singh

USA wins 5 and 4

Tiger Woods

Mike Weir

INT wins 1 up

Woody Austin

Angel Cabrera

INT wins 2 and 1

Zach Johnson

Adam Scott

INT wins 2 and 1

David Toms

Trevor Immelman

USA wins 2 up

Stewart Cink

Nick O'Hern

USA wins 6 and 4

Steve Stricker

Geoff Ogilvy

INT wins 1 up

Hunter Mahan

K.J. Choi

INT wins 3 and 2

Charles Howell III

Stuart Appleby

USA wins 2 and 1

Jim Furyk

Retief Goosen

INT wins 2 and 1

Final Standings


Overview
After the disaster of the first day the Internationals recovered to keep their hopes in the tournament alive. However the Saturday foursomes was where the game was won and by the singles on Sunday the US only needed 3 wins to secure the event. Congratulations to the Americans they were a fantastic team.

Mike Wier certainly wont forget his last day beating Tiger 1Up with a fantastic display of golf.

I think this tournament will continue to grow in popularity and I am really looking forward to 2011 when the tournament comes to Melbourne Australia!

Golf: Presidents Cup Preview

The Presidents Cup Explained
The presidents cup is upon us and the US team will go into the event as favorites. For those that don't follow golf closely or are new to the game the presidents cup is a team golf tournament between the USA and a team made up from every other country (except European countries). The tournament is very similar to the much older Ryder Cup between the USA and Europe. Each team consists of 12 players and the teams play singles and doubles events, which consist of both alternate shot and best ball formats (also called "foursome" and "four ball" matches).

There is no prize money for this tournament and any money the this tournament makes goes to charity.

How they qualify
Members of the U.S. Team are selected based on earnings from the 2005 World Golf Championships until the 2007 PGA Championship.

International Team players for The Presidents Cup 2007 will be chosen on the basis of the Official World Golf Ranking through the 2007 PGA Championship. The International Team does not include players eligible for the European Ryder Cup Team.

These qualifications are used to select 10 players and the captains select the final 2.

This years teams:

United States	International
Tiger Woods	Ernie Els
Jim Furyk	Adam Scott
Phil Mickelson	Vijay Singh
Zach Johnson	Geoff Ogilvy
Charles Howell III	Rory Sabbatini
David Toms	K.J. Choi
Scott Verplank	Retief Goosen
Steve Stricker	Ángel Cabrera
Stewart Cink	Trevor Immelman
Woody Austin	Stuart Appleby
Lucas Glover	Mike Weir
Hunter Mahan	Nick O'Hern

Captain Captain
Jack Nicklaus Gary Player

There is a strong Australia and South African flavor in the International team with some very strong players being named. The surprise packet of this team could be Nick O'Hern who is the only player to have beaten Tiger Woods in matchplay more than once. As expected the US team is very strong and will be very hard to beat. It will be interesting to see how the captains pair the players up for the doubles events.

My thoughts
I think the USA will be too strong for the international team in this years presidents cup. However, there are some fantastic players on both teams and we should see some really great golf!

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