Saturday: Foursomes & Four-ball Matches, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. ET, NBC
Sunday: Singles Matches, Noon – 6 p.m. ET, NBC
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh and the four Major Championship winners from this year (Angel Cabrera – Masters, Lucas Glover – U.S. Open, Stewert Cink – British Open, Y.E. Yang – PGA Championship) highlight a field that includes six of the world’s top 10 players competing in the Presidents Cup from Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco, Calif. The biennial event, which is contested in non-Ryder Cup years, pits the United States against a team of non-European international stars in match play competition. NBC Sports will broadcast 16 hours of exclusive live coverage on Saturday and Sunday, including coverage of the 12 concluding singles matches on Sunday.
NBC SPORTS GOLF TEAM: Host Dan Hicks and analyst Johnny Miller, in their10th season together as NBC Sports’ lead golf commentators, anchor the network’s 16 hours of Presidents Cup coverage Saturday and Sunday. NBC also will produce Golf Channel’s 11 hours of coverage on Thursday and Friday. Hicks and Miller are joined by tower reporter Gary Koch; on-course reporters Roger Maltbie, Mark Rolfing and Dottie Pepper; and interviewer/essayist Jimmy Roberts; with reports from Golf World’s Tim Rosaforte. Tommy Roy, one of the most nominated persons in the history of the Sports Emmys will produce the 27 hours of coverage on NBC and TNT.
MALTBIE ON GROWING TRADITION OF PRESIDENTS CUP: “Match play is personal and a great many of these players that have been on teams’ past are on the team presently and there’s unfinished business. You’re starting to build that little bit of angst, or let’s say, friendly animosity.”
MILLER ON GOING BACK TO HARDING PARK – WHERE HE GREW UP: “This will probably be the most nostalgic thing I can do in golf. I have nothing but pure thoughts about Harding, what it meant to me. I’d like to go out there and let it wash over me. I have so many memories. I look forward to seeing those trees I used to climb.”
ROSTERS:
United States: Captain – Fred Couples, Assistant Captain – Jay Haas
Automatic qualifiers – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Kenny Perry, Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink, Sean O’Hair, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard
Captain’s picks – Lucas Glover, Hunter Mahan.
International: Captain – Greg Norman, Assistant Captain – Frank Nobilo
Automatic qualifiers – Geoff Oglivy (Australia), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Camilo Villegas (Columbia), Retief Goosen (South Africa), Ernie Els (South Africa), Angel Cabrera (Argentina), Mike Weir, (Canada), Robert Allenby (Australia), Y.E. Yang (South Korea), Tim Clark (South Africa)
Captain’s picks – Ryo Ishikawa (Japan), Adam Scott (Australia)
NBCSPORTS.COM: NBCSports.com will offer live post-game coverage all four days with the U.S. Open Wrap-up Show presented by Lexus, hosted by Bill Patrick, Brian Crowell and Jennifer Mills. The site also will offer highlights, interviews and analysis, as well as live blogging.
PRESIDENTS CUP ON NBC SPORTS MOBILE: Golf fans will be able to get news and scores right on their cell phones with the NBC Sports Mobile Web site or the all-new NBC Sports iPhone app. Fans can also sign-up for exclusive text alerts with scoring updates and daily news. To find out how, users can just text the word GOLF to 51515 or visit http://mobile.nbcsports.com.
PRESIDENTS CUP HISTORY: The U.S. team takes a 5-1-1 advantage in Presidents Cup play into this year’s event. In 2007 in Montreal the U.S won its fifth Presidents Cup in seven tries led by David Toms who had the most points for the U.S. team.
In 2005 outside of Washington D.C., the U.S. won by an 18 ½ – 15 ½ margin as Chris DiMarco clinched the victory by sinking a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win his singles match.
In the 2003 competition held in South Africa, the teams finished knotted at 17 points apiece. The rules (since amended) called for the winner to be decided in a sudden death playoff, and Tiger Woods and Ernie Els were their captains’ selections to represent the squads in the playoff. After three playoff holes had failed to decide the match, and with darkness approaching, the teams agreed to be recognized as co-winners of the 2003 Presidents Cup.
The United States won the event in 2000 by a 21 ½ -10 ½ count at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. When the 2001 Ryder Cup was postponed following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Presidents Cup competition shifted to odd-numbered years.
The International Team won for the only time in 1998 in Australia.
The Presidents Cup was launched by the PGA Tour in 1994 to give the world’s best non-European players an opportunity to compete in international team match-play competition in non-Ryder Cup years. Presidents Cup competition consists of 32 matches: 10 foursomes, 10 four-ball matches, and 12 singles matches involving all players on the final Sunday. All matches are worth one point each, for a total of 32 points.
ELIGIBILITY: Members of the 2009 U.S. Team were selected based on official earnings from the start of the 2008 season through the 2009 PGA Championship. International Team players were chosen on the basis of the Official World Golf Ranking and do not include players eligible for the European Ryder Cup Team. The eligibility rankings are used to select 10 members for both squads. The 12-man teams are rounded out by two Captains’ Choices per team.
