Patrick Reed caddie Kessler Karain

Mickelson plans to skip U.S. Open for daughter’s graduation

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Tiger Woods back on the course for a competitive round — even if it is a relaxed one — for the first time since his February car crash will draw all sorts of attention.

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Thanks to the alternate-reveal format used to announce Presidents Cup matches, International Captain Nick Price had the honors for Thursday’s third Foursomes match at Liberty National. He tabbed Si Woo Kim and Emiliano Grillo, an eyebrow-raising pair of first-timers. That left American captain Steve Stricker to counter. He opted for Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, his most dependable and dynamic duo who have a combined record of 5-1-2 in the last three U.S. team events. A year ago at the Ryder Cup, they twice knocked off Olympic medalists Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson. Two years ago at the Presidents Cup in Korea, they beat Jason Day and Charl Schwartzel. Stricker could have opted to save Spieth and Reed for one of the last two matches, which would have pitted them against Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen – who went undefeated two years ago – or the Aussie powerhouse of Day and Marc Leishman. Instead, Spieth and Reed get the least-experienced pair among Price’s starters on Thursday. “There’s different theories on who do you want to put them up against,â€� Stricker explained, the ink having yet to dry on the match sheet he just filled out. “Do you want to put up two powerhouses against one another? Every match is tough. Anybody can beat anybody on this sheet of paper.â€� Clearly, though, he expects a point from Spieth and Reed against two International players who’ve struggled recently for results. Since winning THE PLAYERS Championship in May, Kim has made 11 starts. His best result was a T13 at the U.S. Open but the rest of the run failed to garner a result inside the top 40, including four missed cuts and two WDs. Grillo failed to win this season after doing so in his rookie year on the PGA TOUR. He finished 11th at TPC Sawgrass but has not had a top-20 finish in his ensuing 11 starts that includes four missed cuts. On paper, this match appears a mammoth mismatch. But is it? Having been thrown together as partners on Tuesday in practice, Grillo and Kim promptly shot 8-under in an alternate-shot battle against all their International teammates. In a tradition started by Price in 2013, the winning duo on each Presidents Cup Tuesday wins his broken putter from the 2003 Presidents Cup, which Price snapped over his knee after losing a singles match to Kenny Perry. The half-club is mounted as a trophy and is engraved with the winners. Day and Graham DeLaet won it in 2013, and justified it with a terrific effort. Danny Lee and Leishman shared it with Schwartzel and Sangmoon Bae in Korea. Can Grillo and Kim shock the world this week? “We played yesterday and we won. We beat everybody, so why not? It worked yesterday, it’s going to work tomorrow,â€� Grillo said. “If we give ourselves the chance to win the match, we’re going to take it.â€� Added Kim: “This is the first time for me to play in the Presidents Cup, so I feel a little nervous, but also I’m just looking forward to doing that. I played with Spieth at the British Open, so I think I have experience. I think I can handle that.â€� Spieth knows most everyone is expecting victory. But neither he nor his partner Reed will be taking the rookies lightly. “We just try to control what we can control. They have got nothing to lose, and a lot of times, that’s a little easier to play from,â€� he said. “We can’t allow them to gather any kind of momentum. They feel like they got some off the last Presidents Cup and we certainly didn’t want that to happen. So tomorrow is a big day. “Patrick and I are very serious and very focused on tomorrow in this alternate-shot format where we have been very successful. Doesn’t matter who we are playing.â€� Warned Reed: “You never know what they can do. Match play, they can go out and they can just play lights out, all of a sudden they’re 9-under through 9, and it’s like, OK, well, they’ve played perfect. So if we go out and just play our game, play the best we can, and if we do that and we’re happy with how we played, we should be able to win a match.â€� Stricker, ever the diplomat, cautioned against mismatches on paper. He knows the International team will be expecting Grace and Oosthuizen to continue their winning ways in the fourth match of the day, but he’s confident his rookie duo of Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger can offer a proper response. “Take Oosthuizen and Grace – with their record, you think they’re going to take it to Koepka and Berger. But we’ve got a U.S. Open champion and both are fiery – it’s a challenge for them. We like that challenge. “You know, it’s so hard to tell. I don’t think it’s fair to judge one player over the other. They’re all really great players. It’s such a fine thing to try to dissect these teams when you don’t know how they’re going to play. It’s golf.â€� And the first of four intriguing days will start Thursday at Liberty National.

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