Weir selected to International team for Presidents Cup
Monday, August 13, 2007
Canada’s Mike Weir was named Monday as one of two captain’s picks for the International team for next month’s Presidents Cup in Montreal.
International captain Gary Player also named Australia’s Nick O’Hern to the team, which pits the top International golfers against the top players from the United States.
“I’ve always valued the Presidents Cup and enjoyed playing the last three. It’s just such a great competition and being in Canada I wanted to play badly,” Weir said Monday during a conference call.
Weir has struggled of late, having missed the cut at last weekend’s PGA Championship. He withdrew from the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational the week before as a result of a muscle pull in his neck, and he tied for 34th at the Canadian Open three weeks ago.
“I felt like sometimes I was trying too hard,” said Weir, who is 84th on the PGA Tour money list this season with $927,372 US in earnings. “Now that Gary has made me a selection, hopefully I can relax a little more and play some really good golf leading into the Presidents Cup.”
The first 10 players on each team were based on world standings following play on Sunday.
Leading the U.S. will be Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson. United States captain Jack Nicklaus selected Lucas Glover and Hunter Mahan on Monday to round out his team.
Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Geoff Ogilvy will lead the International team.
The U.S. holds a 4-1-1 all-time record in the matches. This year’s matches will be held Sept. 27-30 at The Royal Montreal Golf Club. U.S. Captain.
Calgary’s Stephen Ames made a strong bid to be named to the International team, including a 12th place finish in last weekend’s PGA Championship. He was among the leaders throughout the weekend, but shot a six-over-par 76 on Sunday to slip from the top-three into 12th spot.
Ames is 54th on the money list with $1,184,339 in paycheques.
“It was very, very close, actually,” said Player. “He (Ames) played so well in the PGA, the way we worked it out, he had to finish in the top four, which I actually thought he’d do the way he was playing. If he had finished fourth solo, he would have finished in top-10 (and earned an automatic team spot). Unfortunately he didn’t have a very good round.
“But obviously everybody was on my mind. It’s a very difficult thing to select a team.”
Ames had been looking forward to the possibility playing on Canadian soil.
“I’m truly disappointed that I was so close to the honour of playing for the International Team and that it didn’t quite happen for me this time around,” he said.
“As a proud Canadian, I was excited about the idea of playing in the Presidents Cup especially given that it is being played in Canada for the first time. I certainly feel that I have played well enough over a sustained period of time to warrant selection, but I also know how many talented players there are to choose from on the International side.”
© CanWest News Service 2007
