Thursday's Foursomes Pairings

SAN FRANCISCO -- The early part of the week at team events like the Presidents Cup often features an inordinate amount of hand-wringing over details like the captains' "leadership styles" and ping-pong matches in the team room. It's not until the first set of pairings are announced that we have something resembling tangible news.

That part was taken care of a few moments ago, when captains Fred Couples and Greg Norman along with their respective assistants, met in a conference room at Harding Park to hash out Thursday's foursomes matches.

Without further delay, here they are (all times PDT), followed by some background:

__12:10 p.m. Mike Weir/Tim Clark (International) vs. Anthony Kim/Mickelson (U.S.)

12:22 p.m.: Adam Scott/Ernie Els (International) vs. Hunter Mahan/Sean O'Hair (U.S.)

12:34 p.m.: Vijay Singh/Robert Allenby (International) vs. Lucas Glover/Stewart Cink (U.S.)

12:46 p.m.: Angel Cabrera/Camilo Villegas (International) vs. Kenny Perry/Jim Furyk (U.S.)

12:58 p.m: Geoff Ogilvy/Ryo Ishikawa (International) vs. Steve Stricker/Tiger Woods (U.S.)

1:10 p.m.: Retief Goosen/Y.E. Yang (International) vs. Jim Furyk/Justin Leonard (U.S.__)

Some random notes:

-- Speaking of leadership styles, both Couples and Norman offered a window into theirs by how they constructed their pairings. Couples said he simply asked his players who they wanted to play with, while Norman said he sent a confidential e-mail to each player on his team with six questions -- sort of like golf's version of the Wonderlic test NFL teams administer before the draft. Norman, for what it's worth, would not reveal what those questions were.

-- The day's first match pitting Weir and Clark against Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson was largely a result of all four players requesting they go off first. Pretty sure it was not because of an early dinner reservation, but we could be wrong.

-- Stricker and Woods had requested they play together as far back as the Barclays at Liberty National.

-- As for why Geoff Ogilvy was paired with Japanese phenom Ryo Ishikawa, Norman said he thought Ogilvy as an emerging "statesman" was up for the task. And sure enough, when he asked Ogilvy if he would have any problem with the pairing, Ogilvy responded, "I was going to tell you somewhere during the week that I wanted to play with him."

-- Sam Weinman

(Photo: Scott Halleran/Getty Images)