The 2013 Presidents Cup begins Thursday with four days of great matches instead of the three we normally get with the Ryder Cup. Here are the four-day formats:
- Thursday Four-ball (All 12 players from each team in 6 matches)
- Friday Foursomes (All 12 players in 6 matches)
- Saturday morning Four-ball (10 players in 5 matches)
- Saturday afternoon Foursomes (10 players in 5 matches)
- Sunday Singles (All 12 players mano a mano)
The event will be played at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, Jack Nicklaus’ home course and the site of his annual Memorial Tournament. With all of Jack’s years of tinkering with his baby, it now stretches out to 7,352 yards and plays to a par 72. We have seen this course for years on PGA Tour broadcasts and that gives the entire American team a bit of an edge; they’ve been playing it for years too. The course and the hospitable environment for the players created by Jack and Barbara Nicklaus have made it a player favorite.
Here are the pairings for Thursday morning in 14-minute intervals:
11:45 am – Hunter Mahan and Brandt Snedeker vs Jason Day and Graham Delaet
11:59 am – Bill Haas and Webb Simpson vs Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama
12:13 am – Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley vs Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel
12: 27 am – Steve Stricker and Jordan Spieth vs Ernie Els and Brendon de Jonge
12:41 am – Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar vs Angel Cabrera and Marc Leishman
12:55 am – Zach Johnson and Jason Dufner vs Brenden Grace and Richard Sterne
Recent weather patterns have the course setting up harder and faster than the Memorial’s traditional May date. However, they had a day-long, two-inch rain two weeks ago that softened it significantly and the superintendent is waiting ardently for the course to come back from that.
There is a 30% chance of isolated thunderstorms all day Thursday. Friday looks good and the thunderstorms are in the forecast again on Saturday and Sunday. But that’s a lifetime away in weather forecasting.
In any event, it will be an entertaining day of match play.