My interest in the President’s Cup this past weekend waxed and waned with the foursomes.

On Thursday, the US Team won five of six foursomes matches, and I was convinced that the tournament was over. During the Friday fourballs, however, the Internationals staged a comeback and it looked as though they would make a tournament of it. Then came the Saturday foursomes, which the US swept. By Saturday night, it was apparent that only a miracle on Sunday would make it competitive.

For me, Sunday was worth watching only in that Mike Weir was able to defeat Tiger Woods in singles match play. I was quite happy for the Canadian fans, who got to see their national golf hero do well in his “home and native land.” And any time someone steps up to challenge The Tiger, it’s good for golf.

I think it’s interesting that the tournament hinged upon the poor play of the Internationals in foursomes. Foursomes is a format in which a single ball is played by a team of two players. One player tees off, then the other hits the ball. The players alternate on the tees.

There isn’t any obvious reason why the internationals fared so poorly in foursomes. They won both four ball sessions and the singles 7 - 5. Their team was obviously competitive. In fact, I’d argue that on a player-by-player basis, the Internationals were better than the Ryder Cup teams that have so soundly defeated the Americans in recent years.

But the real mystery is why the US President’s Cup teams have fared so much better than the Ryder Cup teams—with essentially the same players.

Foursomes is a match play format in which teams of two players play a single ball, alternating shots. One player hits the tee shot, the second player then takes the second shot, and so on. Four players, two balls.

While watching the foursomes matches at the President’s Cup on Saturday, Tiger Woods offered an interesting insight into a foursomes strategy. On each hole, the players tee off with the ball of the player who will hit the approach shot to the green. That ensures that the player hitting to the green will be familiar with the spin characteristics of the ball in play.

So, for example, Jim Furyk might tee off on a par 4 using Tiger’s ball. Tiger then can hit wedge into the green with something he’s familiar with. On the next, Tiger will tee off with Furyk’s ball so Jim can hit into the green with a ball he likes.

The Player Formerly Known as David Duval   is back in action this weekend after a seven month layoff to tend for his wife during a difficult pregnancy.

It’s fairly certain that he’s not going to win back his tour card this fall, but he has one more exemption left: for being in the Top 50 of lifetime earnings, which he most certainly will use this next year. He already was playing on an exemption this year. I’ve been seriously wondering, though, if he might not be able to get the exemption he used this year back under the Family Leave Act. He apparenlty did intend to compete quite a bit this year, but was sidetracked by the family medical emergency. Surely that would qualify.

The golf pundits are all agog with the news that the six major golf organizations (PGA Tour, European Tour, LPGA Tour, U.S. Golf Association, Royal & Ancient Golf Club, Augusta National Golf Club and the PGA of America) all have agreed to begin drug testing.

But it’s a non-story, really,  because while the organizations have agreed to testing, the really important issues have yet to be resolved. By far the most contentious topics are sure to revolve around testing procedures and sanctions; and those are going to be left to each group. The PGA Tour will begin reviewing proposals at its November 12 meeting. Augusta National and the officials at the R&A apparently are going to wait and see what will be done by the others.

The real story of drug testing will be in the implementation. And we won’t know how that goes for some time.

On Friday, Tad Fujikawa, Ricky Barnes and David Hearn each aced the 133 yard par 3 seventeenth at the Nationwide Tour’s Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho.

Its the first time that’s happened on the Nationwide.

Do you think the hole had a favorable pin location?

The next “big” event in golf is the President’s Cup, which pits US players against an team of internationals—less the Europeans. It’s sort of a Ryder Cup Lite that was created by the PGA Tour.

Nonetheless, it has been fun to watch over the last few years.

This year’s President’s Cup will be held at the Royal Montreal Golf Club on Sept. 24 - 30.

To help you catch up on the President’s Cup history, the PGA Tour site has an article with some memorable moments.

My predictions came true: If Tiger was leading on Friday, the tournament was over.

It was. The striped one finished at 23 under—two better than his previous record, set at the 2000 NEC Invitational.

Notably, Masters winner Zach Johnson finished second in the tournament—although not in the final FedEx Cup standings. That “honor” went to Steve Stricker, who along with Phil Mickelson was the only one with a realistic chance to keep Tiger from signing the $10 million annuity paperwork.

I’m glad that’s over. Now we can go onto the fall season, which for my money will be somewhat more interesting than the FedEx Playoffs. In the Fall series, the second tier of players will be fighting it out for their tour cards. No pampered quitters here. These guys have to finish in the top 125 to keep their privileges.

It would be nice if the Tour would keep an updated list kept a running score of who needed to finish were in order to keep their cards—just as they kept a running appraisal of possibilities in FedEx Cup Points.