Tiger Selects Himself to Fill His Presidents Cup Team

With the Presidents Cup right around the corner, captains on both sides had to make their picks this week to fill out their teams. That being said, U.S. Captain Tiger Woods had a tough decision to make with his team.

As always, the U.S. team is stacked with talent but that creates hard decisions for the team captain to pick their final four players. The field is so large that you are almost guaranteed to make someone out there upset with who you pick, especially the fans. This was incredibly hard for Tiger to do because one of the options that he was considering was himself.

#USTeam @PresidentsCup captain’s picks:

1⃣: Tony Finau
2⃣: Patrick Reed
3⃣: Gary Woodland
4⃣: The man himself, Tiger Woods. 😎 pic.twitter.com/N2hK3UcFYM

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) November 8, 2019

It’s hard to argue that Woods doesn’t deserve a spot as a player on the team but the question always has to be asked if it’s really fair or respectable to name yourself as a player when you are already a captain. After months of consideration, Woods decided that he would be naming himself as a player as one of his own captain picks, being the first playing captain since Hale Irwin in 1994.

And for anyone thinking this is just an ego trip for Tiger, it was actually his assistant captains that insisted that he name himself to the team. “The players, they wanted me to play in the event,” Woods said. “It’s going to be difficult, but I also have three amazing assistants in Fred (Couples), Stricks (Steve Stricker) and Zach (Johnson). So that helps a lot.”

Embed from Getty Images

The three other players that Tiger took with him for the Presidents Cup are U.S. Open winner Gary Woodland, Tony Finau, and Patrick Reed. All of those players had high enough points from the season to have fallen into the next batch of players that just missed automatic qualification. These picks also mean that Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler will miss the event. Phil Mickelson will also miss out on his first Presidents Cup ever and his first U.S. team since the 1993 Ryder Cup.

Looking at all of the names on that missed out, there’s no doubt that Tiger had one of the most difficult decisions of any captain in recent years. Now, only time will tell if he picked the right players that can play together and bring the United States another victory.

Cover Image via Instagram