Tim Rosaforte - November 21, 2011

• By Morning Drive Team
• Nov 21, 2011 7:55 AM ET

Tim is in Australia where he covered the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne last week. The International team’s challenges, as expressed by Assistant Captain Frank Nobilo, included dealing with different cultures, tours, and languages and trying to bring everyone together as one team. Additionally, they have always struggled with the alternate shot format and that is where they arguably lost the Presidents Cup this year. While lack of play is a problem, a bigger problem for the international team is bringing together players who do not know each other’s games and trying to create winning pairings. 

Royal Melbourne is a phenomenal course with terrific bunkering and difficult greens. The course is not very long but it is still a stern test. When the weather was harsh this week, the course became that much harder. He thinks that Women’s Australian Open will play like a Major for the LPGA Tour players in 2012.

Tiger Woods played great this week and was helped in part by the fact that he had a Captain in Fred Couples who believed in him before and during the competition. Woods grinded and hit great shots all week but it was not until the Singles matches that he began to make putts. While it was just one match and one week, there are a lot of things to take from this week as the smile is returning to his face and the great shots are returning to his game.