Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Australia — The winning point for Tiger Woods. A perfect record for Jim Furyk.
And validation for U.S. captain Fred Couples.
The Americans won the Presidents Cup as a team, 19-15, avenging their worst loss ever in any cup competition 13 years ago on a Royal Melbourne course that lived up to its reputation as among the greatest tests in golf.
Yet even as they gathered around the gold trophy at the closing ceremony Sunday afternoon, all of them dressed in red shirts and blue blazers, it was hard to ignore the singular achievements.
Couples was criticized in some corners for picking Woods, who had fallen out of the top 50 for the first time in 15 years and had gone two years without winning. Even the International team captain, Greg Norman, said he would have taken PGA champion Keegan Bradley.
So perhaps it was only fitting that it was Woods who blasted out of a deep bunker on the 15th hole to within 2 feet to put away Aaron Baddeley and give the Americans the point they needed to win the Presidents Cup.
Couples was among the first to greet him, shadow boxing with the guy he called “the best player in the world forever.”
“I’m thankful that he picked me,” Woods said. “Greg is probably not happy about it after I closed out the cup today. But it’s great to be a part of this team. I’m thankful that Freddie believed in me to be a part of this team. This is just a great bunch of guys.”
Woods was solid for five matches, even though he was rewarded with only two points. On another tough day of strong winds and super slick greens, he made six birdies — the most in any of the 12 singles matches — and earned the clinching point for the second straight time.
“A lot of people have asked why I picked him and how he was going to play,” Couples said. “Certainly I couldn’t answer how he was going to play, but this week I think he showed to himself that his swing is back and he’s healthy. And that’s more important to me. Obviously, we want to win the cup. But it’s more important for me to have people realize that he can play the game.”
If there was any concern, it might have been Furyk.
Furyk had his worst full season since he was a rookie, failing to win a tournament or come even close, only securing a spot on the team in the final hour. He teamed with Phil Mickelson three times, Nick Watney once and was at his best by himself against Ernie Els to become only the fourth player to go 5-0 in the Presidents Cup.
The others were Woods in 2009, Shigeki Maruyama in 1998 and Mark O’Meara in 1996.
“Knowing Phil for as many years as I have … I’m guessing he asked to play with me, because I struggled so much this year and played poorly — the worst of anyone sitting up here right now,” Furyk said. “I assume that he asked to play with me because he felt like he could get a lot out of me this week, that maybe he could pump some confidence into me. And he did that.”
The Americans took a 13-9 lead into the final day — only the U.S. team at the Ryder Cup in 1999 at Brookline had come back from a deficit that large to win.