I'm not a great fan of match play for professional tournament golf. It's great for club golf but not for the big stuff. However, the President's Cup is a special event. This will be the ninth one now and each year it has grown bigger, with excitement building given all the close tournaments we've had. We [the International team] have only won once and we'd like to do it again.
The event is being held at Royal Melbourne because of its capacity. It's the best venue we've got in Australia and as good a venue that exists anywhere in the world from the pure watching side of things. It's a course that spectators can walk quite easily. There aren't too many strenuous climbs and descents. The excitement will be there on any of the holes but I'd pick on the par-threes to sit and watch, see how they get on.
The Composite Course at Royal Melbourne is very good. It used to have a great mat of couch grass [as the playing surface]. When Ernie Els went round there in 60 [at the 2004 Heineken Classic], I watched him quite a bit and he never took a divot, there was so little grass under the ball. Now we have this Legends Couch grass [a new strain], which is even thinner. It allows the ball to bounce pretty well and you get tighter lies, which is the essence of championship golf. When you're playing by the British seaside , you don't get much grass under the ball and they get high praise for having those conditions. I agree with that. It takes a special skill to play off tight fairways.
As far as the tournament goes, I don't think there will be any particular advantage to the Internationals. All these players come to a course on the Monday and in a couple of days they've sorted it out, whether it's the US Open, the Open Championship or the 'Hicksville Open' – that's the way they work. It's perfectly obvious at Royal Melbourne – there's nothing blind.
Having said that, I think it will suit the South African players. Those that have gone there have always done well, so I see no reason why they shouldn't play like the 1998 team did here [the 1998 International team, which Thomson captained, won their only Presidents Cup so far]. When we played there, Tiger Woods was pretty near his peak, but he didn't do well. In fact, his iron shots never found the target. He could hit a green but you find you're a cricket pitch away if you're not on the button. He was a bit dumfounded but he did beat [Greg] Norman in the singles match by a hole.
The captains are always under a bit of strain and stress in the lead up to the Cup. For example, two players have to be left out, which is how this format differs from the Ryder Cup. This becomes a problem for the captain. If he has someone playing poorly, the captain has to be stern enough to tell a player that he's not playing him in the morning but that he wants him to get his touch better. The captain has a huge responsibility in getting the pairings right. Don't forget: they're great rivals every other week – they'd eat each other.
So the captain has to sort out how to play his pairs and then there is some manoeuvring in matchups, do you put your weakest pair against the strongest of the opposition? Sort of a ‘giveaway’ match. So it’s a unique competition in that way. Sunday singles is more straightforward. Foursomes, I think, is a bit of an anachronism in this day and age but it fits in well with this sort of event. You wouldn’t have a tournament otherwise played in foursomes.
Would I pick Tiger [if I was the United States captain]? If he's not in the top 10 US players automatically, there's obviously something wrong with his game, so I would question it. Players talk about the these swing changes [that Woods has undertaken]. Here is the best player in the world; he should be giving lessons, not taking them.
Tiger might turn it down if he doesn’t feel he can win. It doesn’t look good for him if he loses in these matches, he lives on his reputation so he might say he’s not ready.– As told to Paul Prendergast
