Woods says he's on hiding to nothing in Presidents Cup

Published on Wednesday 7 October 2009 22:48

TIGER Woods loves to be part of the Presidents Cup but, according to the world No 1, no matter how well he plays, some people are just never satisfied.

After sitting out last year's Ryder Cup to recover from knee surgery, Woods is back leading the Americans this week at Harding Park in their bid for a third straight win over an International team being captained by Greg Norman.

Woods has played in five of the biennial events, losing one, tying one and winning three. But he believes people have expected better from the world's first $1 billion athlete.

"Either way, I play well and it's not enough and I've played poorly and you're not very good," said Woods. "I don't know how the other players feel but certainly I have a lot of responsibilities at these cups."

The 33-year-old is again prepared to take on the toughest assignments, starting with the opening foursomes today.

"It's one of those things where generally I've always played the guy who is playing the best," said Woods. "I've played against Weirsy (Mike Weir) in Canada. I played against Ernie (Els) in South Africa and Greg (Norman) in Australia.

"So either that or guys who are playing really well; like I got Goose (Retief Goosen) when he was playing well and I got Vijay (Singh) when he was playing well here."

The Internationals face the grim prospect of a highly-motivated Woods in peak form. In seven starts since missing the cut at The Open in July, Woods has won three events and finished runner-up in three others.

Despite the stellar season, which has included six PGA Tour titles and a $10 million bonus from the FedExCup play-off events, Woods failed to win a major this year, a disappointment that might be eased with a Presidents Cup win.

Team-mate Jim Furyk said Woods's distress from missing the last US triumph showed his motivation. "Tiger said that he missed it last year, and he watched and he wanted to be here," said Furyk. "He's more stressed out than the rest of us and he missed it. That let's you know where we all are."

South Korea's Yang Yong-eun, who stunned the golf world when he overhauled Woods in the final round of the PGA Championship, knows exactly what to expect if paired against the American.

"Tiger is going to probably come out with a vengeance if he is teamed up against me the final day," said Yang. "It's going to be tough, but I'll try to keep my calm."

A city official has asked the PGA Tour to remind Michael Jordan that he can't smoke cigars at Harding Park during the event. Cigar smoker Jordan is serving as an honorary assistant to United States captain Fred Couples but

Harding Park is a public facility and smoking is banned.