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While doing an interview for the Champions Tour, golf legend Fred Couples told an interesting story about the 2009 Presidents Cup.

According to Couples, who was the captain for the 2009 American team, at the beginning of the week both the United States and International team puts a name of the player on their team who will have to sit out if one of the players on the opposing team is forced out of the match due to injury.

Greg Norman was the captain of the International team at the time, so both Couples and Norman gave the names of their chosen players to the head official Steve Carmen who put them in an envelope.

Couples and the American team went on to win the 2009, Presidents Cup, and Carmen was then tasked with bringing the envelope with the chosen player back to the team locker room after the victory.

Freddy then said to Carmen, “Why don’t you open it up in front of everyone and read the name in there?”

To everyone in the rooms surprise, the name Carmen proceeded to read was none other than Tiger Woods.

According to Couples, the room went completely silent, and everyone thought he was “[Couples] was such a clown that [Couples] put Tiger Woods’ name down as the guy who wouldn’t play on Sunday in case of an injury”.

For two years, Couples let everyone believe that he intentionally chose Tiger Woods to not play. The reality is, after the victory, Couples swapped out a different players name and replaced it with Woods’.

For weeks after the event, Tiger would text Couples saying “Dude, you got the biggest balls of anyone I’ve ever seen”.

Couples said that for two years “he took a lot of heck” for allowing everyone to think he was crazy enough to pick the greatest golfer of all time to sit out a Sunday match to potentially decide the winner of the Presidents Cup.

Each @PresidentsCup, the captains select a player they’re willing to sit in case the opposing team has an injury.

You won’t believe who @fredcouplesgolf picked to sit out for the #USTeam in 2009. ? pic.twitter.com/BVk6EPKTRv

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) September 15, 2022

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