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Wednesday October 7, 2009

Vijay senses Presidents Cup upset by the Internationals

SAN FRANCISCO: Virtually all the signs point towards yet another United States victory at this week’s Presidents Cup, but Internationals stalwart Vijay Singh has a feeling he and his team-mates could pull off an upset.

“Our guys are really fired up and I think we are going to have a good week,” said Fijian Vijay at a sun-splashed Harding Park Golf Course on Monday.

“We have a great team this year and it’s all about momentum. If a team has great momentum, they’re going to putt well and they’re going to hit great shots. Picking the right combinations will be key.”

Collective form this season, Cup history and comparative world ranking strength combine to make the US team heavy favourites for this week’s matches starting tomorrow.

The Americans have never lost on home soil and they will be seeking to win the trophy for a sixth time in eight editions of the biennial team competition.

On top of that, the US ended a run of three defeats in the Ryder Cup with a commanding victory over Europe last year, giving them another jolt of confidence in the matchplay team format.

“The Americans are riding really high at the mo­­ment,” said the 46-year-old Vijay, the only In­­ternationals player to have competed in every Presidents Cup.

“They’ve done well in the FedExCup, they had a lot more wins on the regular (PGA) Tour and they are all up there in the world rankings.

“Everything is clicking for them at the moment and they will be a hard team to beat,” Vijay, a three-time major winner, added. “They’ve got the Cup and they have a very relaxed captain as well in Freddy Couples.”

The Americans have five players in the top 10 while the Internationals have only one — 10th-ranked Australian Geoff Ogilvy.

“At the same time, we’ve got a great team. We don’t have to worry about what the Americans are going to do. We’ve just got to worry about pairing ourselves up and gearing ourselves up.”

American Kenny Perry, who will be appearing in his fourth Presidents Cup this week, believes the competition desperately needs the Internationals to regain the winning habit.

“It was said last year that we needed to win the Ryder Cup again to kind of bring back the flare and the mystique of it,” the 49-year-old said.

“And we did that. In the same way, I think the International team need to start winning some more and make it to where the fans will see it and view it as a great event.”

That said, though, Perry relishes the more relaxed environment of the Presidents Cup.

“It’s like playing with your buddies,” he said. “The International squad is the guys we play with week-in and week-out here. We know each other, we’re all good friends. A lot of barbing, jabbing going on out there. It’s really fun.”

The US have dominated the Presidents Cup, winning five times in seven editions, including a 19.5 points to 14.5 victory at the Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada two years ago.

The only success for the Internationals came in 1998 when the event was staged in Melbourne. In 2003, the two teams battled to a 17-17 draw in South Africa. — Reuters

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