The 2011 PGA Championship looked set to be a significant week as Fred Couples closed in on making his two picks for that year’s Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, with Keegan Bradley going on to win on his maiden major championship start.
Keegan Bradley won the 2011 PGA Championship following a playoff with Jason Dufner in Atlanta. In the process, Bradley became only the sixth player to win on their major debut. And it seemed difficult to imagine how he would not earn a spot on that year’s Presidents Cup team.
At the same event, Tiger Woods ended up missing the cut on only his second major start of the season. He finished on 10 over par. It was the first time that Woods had ended the week outside of the top 100 in a major championship.
By the time the opening tee shot was hit at November’s Presidents Cup, Woods had dropped to 50th in the world rankings.
The first time Keegan Bradley was overlooked by Team USA as Tiger Woods received a contentious pick
Of course, it would always take a brave captain to overlook Woods. He had won his 14th major title just three years earlier, with Woods producing a stunning performance on one leg at Torrey Pines.
But with just two spots to fill, American captain Fred Couples faced a tough decision.
Oddly, Couples made no secret of his intention to pick Woods a month before the deadline, as reported by Golf Digest in August of that year.
But Bill Haas went on to throw a spanner in the works by winning the FedEx Cup.
With that, it was Bradley who missed out. Couples stuck with Woods, while Haas also got the nod. Haas had, at least, been 12th in the point standings.
Unfortunately for Bradley, of course, it would not be the last time that he was overlooked when he had arguably done enough to represent Team USA.
How Tiger Woods helped make Presidents Cup history in
Couples did avoid becoming only the second American captain to lose at the Presidents Cup that week in Australia. And Woods was able to contribute two points to the cause, securing the victory in the singles on Sunday that got the away side across the line.
However, the 2011 Presidents Cup saw Woods enter the record books for the wrong reasons, with the opening day seeing himself and Steve Stricker beaten 7&6 by Adam Scott and KJ Choi.
It became the largest margin of victory in foursomes in Presidents Cup history. The result was matched at Royal Montreal in 2024 when Hideki Matsuyama and Sung-jae Im beat Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.
Woods went on to lose alongside Dustin Johnson in both fourball sessions. His only win over the first three days came on Saturday morning, with Woods and Johnson managing to beat Scott and Choi.
Victory in the penultimate match out on Sunday ensured that Woods secured his second point of the week. His putting dramatically improved as he managed to beat Aaron Baddeley 4&3.
Just three American players would manage to contribute fewer points than Woods, with Haas among them.
Bradley’s Presidents Cup debut would come two years later, in 2013. Along with Woods and Haas, Bradley managed to qualify automatically for Couples’ team as they went on to win at Muirfield Village.
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