The Wire: Golf's Only Daily Transaction Newsletter

Pairings were announced Wednesday for the first day of the Presidents Cup matches. International Team Captain Gary Player and Captain's Assistant Ian Baker-Finch met with U.S. Team Captain's Assistant Jeff Sluman and Davis Love III to comment on those pairings. U.S. Team Captain Jack Nicklaus was ill.

JEFF SLUMAN: I'm obviously a first-timer at this, but talking with Jack before the pairings, he told me to defer, and at least I got one thing right. So I did that. Before I went in there, had a pretty good idea of what Gary and Ian were going to do with their team and although there was no real surprises, we just kind of went with the flow here. I like the way the pairings shaked out, and I'm sure you'll hear the same from them. I think it's going to be some wonderful golf tomorrow. It should just be very, very exciting.

I'd also like to personally thank Davis. He volunteered to come in there and kind of help me out with this. He's been through it many, many times and his help was invaluable.

GARY PLAYER: The pairings turned out -- well, they just look so equal to me. They are all good players, they are all good matches and it's worked out just as we would like, so that we can have the best possible matches available. It's a very difficult thing. There's no miracle tonic or trick to it.

But obviously Ian and I sat down at great length and said who we would like to see possibly play somebody else, but it doesn't work out like that, because when you're choosing and when we were deferred, I would like Jack to have picked, or Jeff, to have picked first, but we were prepared for that. We thought that we would be deferred, which we were.

So I must say it's worked out pretty even and now it's up to the guys to go out and I'm sure that all of the players will be, I assume, are happy with the draw. Now it's up to them to produce the shots.

Q.: How much did you guys play the match-up game, which teams are going to play which teams?

GARY PLAYER: Well, Ian and I sat down and we tried to work out what they would do. We were quite close. About the only way I can answer that. There's only, as you know, six teams. I think of the four, I think we guessed four of the six. That's about it.

But they are awfully evenly-matched. I think all of the guys are happy -- I know I spoke to our guys, and Ian would say it's very happy with the way it's turned out and that's what we want, good matches.

Q.: A follow-up to that, Gary, if I understand correctly, you guys slotted Price and Weir first, they countered with Mickelson and Toms. They do DiMarco/Kelly. Did you want Vijay and Retief against that twosome, or did you just want Retief and Vijay in the second slot?

GARY PLAYER: We wanted Nicky Price, because he likes to play fast. He's a fast player and he can set the pace. As we've had in Ryder Cup Matches, particularly and in World Match-Play events and other events of this nature, if you get somebody who is very, very slow, it really can have an effect, taking a long time and getting behind and then the officials have to go and say "will you please move up" and keep going on. We're given, as you can see, ten-minute intervals, which is a lot, but if you have a man who is very slow, he can really affect the whole field. So I think the players that we have will keep the field moving nicely.

As far as Vijay and Retief are concerned, we couldn't say -- that was one of the ones we didn't guess, one of the two that we didn't feel might happen, but it's turned out very nicely for both sides.

IAN BAKER-FINCH: Can I also add that Pricey is a great guy to get back early to help the team as the rest of the matches finish. So you want the guy out that's rooting the team on, as they say in the American media, national media, rooting them on. It's good to have Pricey and Weirsy back after their match, regardless of the outcome. Hopefully they will win a point, but they can get back out there and they are behind the rest of the team. I think you have to give that a bit of thought, as well, when you are putting your early teams out.

Q.: As a future captain, was this process unexpected, but kind of enjoyable for you, and what was going through your mind as you were assisting Jeff?

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, it's not enjoyable because we've seen Jack pop out of his room just a couple times. In fact, I missed him last night. I was sleeping through team meetings and dinners last night and now he's sleeping during the day. We saw him come out on the golf course for just a few minutes. I know he didn't come all the way down here to feel bad and not participate. So I feel bad for Jack.

But when Jeff said, "Hey, might have to go do this by myself," I said, "Well, you need somebody to go with you. Get Jay or myself or one of your friends that's done it before, has played some, to go sit with you." At least, just to, not really add anything to it, but just to have somebody to bounce an idea off of. I kind of knew from playing a bunch of these what Jeff would be going through and he needed somebody just to go with him, really. I don't think I added much, other than it was fun for me and an honor to sit with these three guys in something as important as this. It was a little bit selfish but also didn't want Jeff to go by himself.

Q.: (Gary) did you beat Jack at Pearl Valley?

GARY PLAYER: No. We started giving each other ten-foot putts because Jack said we don't want this to be an international match. I'm opening my golf course and I wanted this to be good fun and I don't want it to be -- I'm explaining all of the holes to them, and going over the whole thing. It was funny, Jack played very well, he was telling me how badly he was playing and he played so well. Jack is very capable, if he did not have aches and pains and doesn't have his body hurting him, he can still play remarkably well. Obviously, you lose a lot of distance, you lose a lot of strength, but he's been exceptionally good with his diet and his exercises. He can still play very well.

Q.: Jeff, was the goal all along to have Toms and Phil out first and Charlie and Tiger last, regardless of what they were sending your way?

JEFF SLUMAN: Actually, no, Doug. But we did want to start out the first match with a team with experience. David and Phil have teamed up wonderfully and so we wanted to get them out.

Then we went to -- it was my turn and I wanted to get Jerry, and Chris out early. Jerry said he was thinking that if this was the old format where you didn't play till Friday, he would go crazy. So this guy is so wired to go. It was very good to get him out early. And as Ian said, both guys are wonderful cheerleaders and they are going to get off that golf course because they all play fast and come back and support the rest of the team.

Q.: There was obviously a lot of input from the players, Davis. Was Kenny on your radar screen and how did that come together, you two?

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I think Jack, when we played in Australia, he said, "All right, what do you guys want to do," kind of, when we arrived.

This time, I think he learned that we can be wishy-washy and everybody has their own opinions; and "I want to play with this guy." And "Well, maybe not, I want to play with that guy."

So he and Jeff I think very wisely, like Ken Venturi did, just said, all right guys, here's the teams for the first day. We knew them weeks ago. So when we got here, there was no real question that we would go play with those guys and have two practice rounds with our partner, which like Jeff said, you probably figured it out if you watched who was playing with who. So I think he did a real good job with organizing it.

You know, there's some different -- I played a bunch of these. There are some guys that it's hard to match up and there are some guys that are obvious. Like David and Phil or Jim and Justin playing together last week, things like that.

I'm thrilled. If I could pick anybody on this team to play with it would probably be Kenny Perry after the last two days and the last few months. He drives the ball great and he putts great and he's a great complement to how I play. He hits the ball in a lot of fairways and way down there.

I think whether it came from Jeff or Jack or other players, pretty much you look at all of them, if you know the guys, it's a very, very good match-up of players that they have put together. And I think on the other side of the table, they did really the same thing. They matched up guys that get along well and play well together and play similar games. I think the matchups are real good and the teams are real good.

Q.: After the outcome of the World Cup last week, any thoughts of Justin and Jim, of splitting them after the outcome of the World Cup?

JEFF SLUMAN: Jim and Justin came up and said: We are very excited, we played together the whole last week, similar ball flight, we have the same distance, we really have become very, very comfortable with each other in alternate-shot, and they were very, very happy to play together.

Jack's theme for alternate-shot is he really likes guys with similar type of games. And going through this, I think that's about as solid as you're going to get for our team for the opening matches.

Q.: For both captains, is it more important to match golf games or match personalities?

GARY PLAYER: Both. I think both. I think the big thing that I did, that I asked Ian to convey to my team, is that it is a team event. We wanted them to feel happy with who they were playing with. And so what we did, we selected our team, we said: This is what we're going to do. We're going to put you together with so and so, are you all happy? If you're not, please say you're not happy.

And then, you know, we've had other guys with the four-ball tomorrow come along and say: Would you mind if I played a little early; I don't want to be the last one coming in and on Sunday, I would rather be a little early than late, and so you accommodate. I think best thing is to get your guys feeling comfortable, and that's essential.

Q.: Just curious why Stu and Rob are not playing together, is that by design?

IAN BAKER-FINCH: They have played together a lot, and I think it actually was maybe -- I mean, Jeff and Davis and all the team pretty much could tell what teams we had made as we could tell what teams they would make for obvious reason. The reasons they put Davis and Kenny together is the reasons we would put, say, Ernie and Adam together or maybe fast player, ball trajectories, things likes that. Robert and Stuart would probably be regarded as an automatic team, perhaps.

So it was throwing a spinner in the works, maybe just a bit of that, by not putting them together; that they may think, "Well, they will have Allenby and Appleby together." I don't know if they thought that but there's a chance. They play so much together; that they are such good friends, typically they don't actually perform as well together as they do with other partners. They just, they are great buddies and they have very similar games. As we all know, they hit it a long way and they are good strikers and both are in the Top 20 in the World. Rankings. But sometime they get a little bit too, "Sorry, Mate, I didn't mean that," or they get a bit too close, and they are both better being a little bit more divorced from that side of things.

Although they are great mates and a great team, they are probably not a good foursomes team for that reason, too.

Q.: Jeff, you've spent a fair amount of time around Jack Nicklaus now, is there anything that has surprised you, anything you didn't expect him to tell you, advice?

JEFF SLUMAN: You know, he's just been very kind to me throughout the years. Nothing really surprising. He's very straightforward. We've got a wonderful team meeting last night and talked to all of the players. He's still to everybody on the team, and maybe he doesn't even realize this, he's still Jack Nicklaus, the guy that we all grew up watching, winning major after major. You grow up as a young kid in Rochester, New York like me, and you wonder if you ever might meet him; and then you wonder if you ever might watch him play golf or play with them; and then compete against him; and then become a friend.

All of that's happened with everybody on the team. We hold him in such high regard because of that. I don't really think Jack ever thinks about it that way. Do you, Davis?

DAVIS LOVE III: I don't think he does. Much like Mr. Player here, it's an honor to get to go on a trip with Jack Nicklaus and play against Gary Player. I keep coming back to that when I'm asked, "are you excited about the Presidents Cup." And the first thing I think of is Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and plus all of the other friends.

But like Jeff said, Jack does it because he loves the game, because he respects the game and he feels a little bit of an obligation, but I don't think he thinks anything of it. He's just a golfer and a father and he owes a little bit to the game more than we need him to do it. He needs to do it; it's important for him to be a part of it.

I think for that reason, we see 12 guys down here working hard in the off-season playing for him.

Q.: Do the captains have any preset team strategies, or do you leave it up to the players, like going for 14, do you make those decisions on the course with them?

JEFF SLUMAN: I think the biggest thing that I've seen so far is -- and nobody has really touched on this, who is going to be the odd and who is going to be the even guy teeing off. That's hugely important and you really have to kind of leave it up to the individual teams.