Americans Tiger Woods and Bill Haas and Australians Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley were named as captain's choice selections for the Presidents Cup matches Tuesday. Australian Greg Norman, captain of the Internationals, and US captain Fred Couples completed the 12-man lineups that meet Nov. 17-20 at Australia's Royal Melbourne Golf Club, where the global side's lone victory came in 1998. The Americans own a 7-1-1 record in the Ryder Cup-styled team event which involves non-European players. US players have won the trophy three times in a row since a memorable draw in South Africa in 2003. Couples had previously announced he would select 50th-ranked Woods, the 14-time major winner who struggled with injuries this year and who has not won any title since November of 2009 and the eruption of his infamous sex scandal. Woods will play next week's US PGA Frys.com Open, an event aimed at players fighting to keep their playing rights for 2012 that he would typically skip, after Couples said he wanted to see Woods play again before the Presidents Cup. Woods has hired Joe LaCava, former caddie for US teammate Dustin Johnson and Couples, to be his new bagman, replacing Steve Williams, who now caddies for Australian Adam Scott, who is on the Internationals for the Presidents Cup. Internationals qualifiers on points included Aussies Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Jason Day, South Africans Charl Schwartzel, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els, South Koreans K.J. Choi, Kim Kyung-tae and Yang Yong-Eun plus Japan's Ryo Ishikawa. US automatic qualifiers included Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Steve Stricker, Webb Simpson, Nick Watney, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan and David Toms. “Knowing we were playing in the backyard of Australia I wanted to load up the team with as many Aussies as I possibly could,” Norman said on a conference call. “The way Aaron and John Senden performed at the Tour Championship, I put them on notice that whoever played the best would get the final nod and Aaron put on a tremendous performance there,” Norman added. “The reason I picked Robert is his performances around Royal Melbourne over the years have been extraordinary ... he was an automatic pick for me.”
