While Tiger Woods may not be present at the Presidents Cup taking place at Quail Hollow in North Carolina, he’s there in spirit and has spoken to many members of the American team by phone.
One of those team members is someone he’s played with in many international competitions: Team US captain Davis Love III.
‘He’s spoken to a lot of people on the team,’ Love said Thursday to reporters.
‘I was standing there on 6 tee for like an hour, a long time, so I called him and we talked for a while. And I said, well, at least you’re watching on TV. Call us if you see anything. He’s having fun.’
It’s been a few months since we’ve seen Woods playing – with the last time the 15-time major winner walking a course at a tournament coming at St. Andrews for the Open Championship.
Woods has offered Love and the US team as much help as he can while not being there in person. Love said he’s appeared on some Zoom calls and received team stats.
While he may not be physically at Quail Hollow, Tiger Woods has been helping the US team
Woods and Team US captain Davis Love III have worked together at similar tournaments before
‘He’s very involved. He’s very helpful,’ Love said. ‘We send him the analytics stuff we get and he makes his own pairings and sends them to us. I still have copies of the notes he was sending me back in 2015 to get ready for 2016. He’s a great — he’s his own analytics team and he gives us a lot of great information.
‘He’ll be very helpful. He just can’t come to the Presidents Cup, but the text messages and the Zoom calls and the e-mails will be flying for sure.’
Love also said he can sense that Woods wants to be there in person – with some assistant captains teasing him about it.
‘He obviously misses it. The other night on a Zoom call, Fred [Couples] said, “When you getting in?” And Tiger said, “What did you say? I can’t hear you.”
‘I know he wishes he was here. You know, it’s not easy to bang around on carts and walk up and down the hills. I get it. But we’re including him.’
Love says Woods would be at the tournament, but ‘it’s not easy’ for Woods to deal with the terrain while he recovers from a car crash he was involved in back in February 2021
Max Homa birdied the final two holes of the last match of the day Friday to deliver the U.S. team to an 8-2 advantage over the International team after two days of the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte.
Homa and Billy Horschel defeated Canadian tandem Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith 1 up in a four-ball (best-ball) match. The match was all square through 16 holes, but Homa rolled in a 13-foot birdie putt at No. 17 to take the lead.
After Pendrith made a birdie putt at No. 18, Homa responded with an 11-footer to halve the hole — and win the match. So sure of the putt’s fate, he took a step away to begin celebrating moments before it dropped, and his American teammates soon joined him and Horschel.
‘It’s pretty surreal to have 10 of the best golfers I’ve ever seen in my life watching you and you’ve gotta help them,’ Homa said on the Golf Channel broadcast. ‘It’s a heavy weight but it’s also really fun. It’s something we live for.’
American Max Homa dropped an 11 foot putt at the 18th hole to win his team’s four-ball match
After sleeping on a 4-1 lead, the Americans won four of the five available points once again. The pairings of Jordan Spieth/Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele stayed together and won their matches for the second straight day. The other two matches were tied, allowing the International team to pick up two half-points.
Spieth and Thomas defeated Australians Adam Scott and Cam Davis 2 and 1. Cantlay and Schauffele raced out to a 5-up lead through eight holes before winning 3 and 2.
Sam Burns holed an eagle putt at the par-5 seventh that measured a hair shy of 80 feet, helping himself and Scottie Scheffler to a 1-up lead over South Korea’s Sungjae Im and Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz.
But Munoz was the only player to birdie No. 13, and at the par-3 14th Im chipped in for birdie to halve the hole. Both Burns and Scheffler hit poor drives at the par-4 17th, and the International duo won with a par to tie the match. Neither team could eke ahead on No. 18.
Justin Thomas (pictured) and partner Jordan Spieth won their second straight match on Day 2
‘Sam was making some crazy putts here and there,’ Munoz said. ‘They got momentum. They got even some luck on their side. We just had to dig deep, keep pushing, and trying to get a couple holes and ended up with a tie.’
In the day’s other match, Kevin Kisner and Cameron Young tied with Chile’s Mito Pereira and South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
The lopsided score leaves open the possibility that the Americans could lock up the Presidents Cup before Saturday is through. Eight points are up for grabs — with four foursomes (alternate-shot) matches and four more best-ball — and the U.S. team is just 7 1/2 away from clinching victory.
Munoz said the International team needs a ‘make or break’ mindset Saturday.
‘I feel like tomorrow is the big day,’ he said. ‘We have to keep in touch for Sunday, and we have a lot of gap to recover from.’
Colombian Sebastian Munoz (R) says Team International needs to have a ‘make or break’ mindset going into a crucial Saturday round of matches
