A Lesson Learned: Putting together a winning team

The eighth playing of the Presidents Cup has been a huge event for the City of San Francisco, the fans, Harding Park Golf Course and the players as well. With the 19 1/2 to 14 1/2 victory by Team USA over the International team, the dominance of the competition continues.

In golf, personalities are key, and that shone like a beacon this week with the great camaraderie of the U.S. team intact while the diverse group of International players appeared more disjointed as a team.

The differing styles of the two captains showed in the results of the 2009 Presidents Cup. (Photo: Getty Images)

In terms of a lesson to be learned from this competition, it is likely pointed toward International Captain Greg Norman. The challenge is to match players who will possibly complement each other. There seemed to be more consistency on the U.S. side (see Tiger/Stricker). Norman seemed to have more different pairings than U.S. Captain Fred Couples.

We also have to consider the past two years since Couples and Norman had been selected as captains. Couples has been playing the PGA Tour on a regular basis and has seen his players in action and likely had a very good feel for his pairings. On the other hand, Norman has played sparingly the past couple of years and wanted to rely on Assistant Captain Fran Nobilo, who works as a broadcaster for Golf Channel.

San Francisco seems to be a near-perfect location for the Presidents Cup, with the diverse melting pot of nationalities, which would have helped the international players more at home. San Francisco has a huge Asian community and the event has attracted a huge amount of Asian media members as well.

Another part of the script that seems appropriate is Fred Couples as the Captain. Fred grew up playing public golf at Jefferson Park in Seattle and has been a star on several teams, playing in four Presidents Cups and sporting an overall record of 9-5-2.

Choices for Couples were not as much a challenge in picking the pairings with the players more similar in personalities and games than the International team. Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker went undefeated with Stricker putting really well and Tiger having moments of his typical brilliance.

Is revenge sweet in golf? Ask Woods, who won his much-anticipated match with Yang, who won the PGA Championship after going toe-to-toe with Woods. And more poignant was the fact that Tiger's 6 & 4 victory was the match that clinched the cup.

Phil Mickelson also went undefeated in team matches playing with different players each day: Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard and then Sean O'Hair. Phil won his singles match with Retief Goosen with a strong finish. Phil was very upbeat and played with great enthusiasm.

In the end, it was a fitting end to a wonderful week in San Francisco, with Woods going undefeated for the entire week and sends the Presidents Cup off to Melbourne, Australia, for the next Presidents Cup. Will Norman be back as International captain? I suspect he will with the event in his homeland on the wonderful composite course at Royal Melbourne.

John Abendroth, PGA, is a former PGA Tour player and NCAA All-American from Weber State University in Ogden Utah. He was also named the 2008 PGA Professional of the Year for the Northern California Section. He is co-founder and Director of Golf Operations for Celtic Golf Management in Northern California (www.plumaspinesgolf.com). John has been a co-host of Hooked on Golf (KNBR radio San Francisco, Fox Sports Bay Area, and www.hookedongolf.com) since 1994. For more information or to reach John, john@hookedongolf.com or www.hookedongolf.com.