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Tiger Woods—and betting markets—offer clues as to whether Woods will pick himself for the Presidents Cup (Sort of)

August 20, 2019
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Tiger Woods' comments during a Monday conference call with reporters made it very clear what the U.S. Presidents Cup captain plans to do regarding potentially picking himself for the team. Kidding! Woods wasn't clear (surprise!) at all.

Here's what he said when asked about being a playing captain in the biennial event:

"My job as the captain is to put together the best team possible. Trying to put together the best 12 guys. We'll be going through the whole process of having communication with the top eight guys and vice captains," Woods said during the call. "That is something that we'll certainly talk about. Ultimately it'll be my call. But I want to have all of their opinions before that decision is made."

So. . . it's up to the eight guys who automatically qualified for the team (Woods wound up No. 13 in the standings that concluded with last week's BMW Championship), but it's "ultimately" Tiger's call? Got it. . .

Making the captain's picks even more confusing is the long gap between now and the Presidents Cup, which will be played at Royal Melbourne Dec. 12-15. Woods will make his four picks from a long list of notable candidates on Nov. 4.

"It's practicing, it's playing, staying sharp. Obviously I'm playing in Japan, and so that's going to help," said Woods of the inaugural Zozo Championship in October, the one official PGA Tour event he has committed to playing before then. "But I think it has a lot to do with a lot of my competitions I'm going to have down here [in South Florida]. I'll be playing with a lot of the guys here. They're going to be getting ready for some of the fall events, we'll have some matches, and that's always fun because we're able to talk trash and have a great time and try and get in one another's pockets. That will be something that I definitely rely on, and obviously the event in Japan."

So. . . the Zozo will be a big determining factor in whether Woods go-gos to Australia? Got it. . .

But as always, if you're looking for a lean on what will happen, you should always check the betting markets. Although, in this case, even they seem to be confused.

On Monday morning, Woods NOT picking himself was listed as a pretty solid -180 favorite (You risk $180 to win $100) on the site sportsbetting.ag. And gamblers could have gotten 3-to-2 odds (+150) on Tiger taking himself on the team.

But following Woods' comments—and some early action—those odds have changed. As of Tuesday afternoon, Woods is down to -145 to not play in the event while you can only get +115 (risk $100 to win $115). Apparently, public sentiment is shifting toward Tiger teeing it up Down Under.

Woods has more time to mull over this difficult decision than he planned after not advancing to this week's Tour Championship, an event he won last year to help him earn a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. So please let us know, Tiger, if you make your choice. There's good money to be made on that info.