Winners and losers from the 2013 Presidents Cup

The 2013 Presidents Cup is over, with the Americans once again taking home the trophy from the Internationals. Fred Couples’ squad won 18.5 to 15.5 but there were plenty of positives and some negatives from both teams.

Here are our winners and losers from the Presidents Cup at Muirfield Village.

Winners

Fred Couples — I’m not sure if it is just the simple fact that Couples is such a laid back guy that it rubs off on the rest of the team, but his reign as captain at the Presidents Cup has been great for the Americans and he had another great week at Muirfield Village. His decision to go with Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar as a team paid off tremendously for the Americans and he is now 3-0 as a captain at the Presidents Cup.

Tiger Woods — The biggest name at the event and the man that would get scrutinized the most for a bad week scored the most points of anyone on either team, going 4-1-0 at Muirfield Village thanks to wet conditions that allowed Woods to simply fire iron shots right at the stick without any worry of getting a bad bounce or a weird kick. Woods was great all week alongside Matt Kuchar and I think he was the right man to clinch the Cup for the United States.

Zach Johnson and Jason Dufner — The two quiet American players were a deadly team, going 3-1-0 and being a solid team for Couples all week. The two sat out the Saturday four-ball matches or they might have joined Tiger atop the points list, but they were just as important as any two guys on this American team and really seem to play well together in these types of events.

Graham DeLaet and Jason Day — These two Internationals players were so impressive this week it seems this could catapult both guys to further success on the PGA Tour. Day was simply solid, but it was DeLaet who had one of the best weeks of anyone at Muirfield Village, holing bunker shots to win matches and keeping the Internationals within earshot of the Americans all the way to Sunday. In two years I expect DeLaet and Day to team up again at this event and be another tough out for whatever American team has to go up against these guys.

Losers

Richard Sterne and Branden Grace — The only two guys on either team that failed to gain a single point for their teams, Sterne and Grace simply looked outmatched the entire week at Muirfield Village. Neither player looked comfortable in any of the formats, and while Sterne gave Tiger a run on Sunday in the singles, he couldn’t close out the man that was really struggling with some back issues towards the end of that match.

Mother Nature — Well, technically I guess Mother Nature was a winner because she sure controlled the golf all week, but what a frustrating few days of golf for both the fans and the players. Heavy rains, weather delays and sessions being pushed around to get the event in by Sunday was a pain, and all the rain on the golf course made Muirfield Village look completely different than most hoped it would play for the Presidents Cup.

The Presidents Cup — To say this event isn’t the Ryder Cup would be an extreme understatement, and the inclusion of all the starts and stops because of weather just made this week feel like it would never end. The Americans tried their hardest on Sunday to let the Internationals mount a comeback, but it just didn’t ever feel like the Cup was headed to the Internationals and it was simply deja vu for the Internationals. The format needs changing or this event is in real danger of becoming something that even the big names skip in the coming years.

Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo Sports