Australian golf fans, Tiger Woods has some potentially bad news for you.
The US captain has confirmed he wants his Presidents Cup players to compete in his elite, 18-man Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas rather than playing in Sydney.
Next year, the unofficial Hero will run concurrently to the Open at The Australian.
The 14-time major winner Woods will do his best to have the best players from the world’s top 50 at his event before they charter a flight to Australia for the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne the following week.
There can be no repeat of 2011’s Australian Open superstar field at The Lakes, which preceded the Cup in Melbourne.
Woods and fellow Americans Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, David Toms, Nick Watney, Hunter Mahan and Bill Haas plus their Cup captain Fred Couples and his assistant Bill Haas.
Organisers next year will instead need to heavily target International team players for their tournament.
“I hope they play at the Hero World Challenge – that’s an obvious one,” Woods told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
“We’ll see what happens as we have to figure some of the logistical things between now and then and that’s one of the reasons I’m here.
“We’ve got a few meetings scheduled in today, try to get a better plan going forward, so that we can get the best that we can at the Hero as well as getting everyone here from the Bahamas to this tournament rested, get them prepared and get them ready to play.”
