Woods names self US playing captain

LOS ANGELES – Tiger Woods will be a playing captain when he leads the United States against an International team in the Presidents Cup match play golf showdown at Royal Melbourne in December.

Woods, who claimed his 15th major title at the Masters in April and won his 82nd US PGA Tour title at the Zozo Championship in Japan two weeks ago, named himself among four captain’s picks for the 12-man team on Thursday, along with US Open champion Gary Woodland, former Masters champion Patrick Reed and world number 14 Tony Finau.

“As captain, I’m going to choose Tiger Woods as the last player on the team,” Woods said. “He’s made ... nine Cups and he’s played in Australia twice in the Presidents Cup, so this will be his third appearance as a player. And I find it interesting talking in the third person.”

Woods will be the first playing captain in the Presidents Cup since American Hale Irwin in the inaugural edition in 1994.

The US superstar admitted in a conference call to announce his captain’s selections that piloting the team – choosing pairings and plotting strategy – and playing would be “a lot of work.”

But the decision had been widely expected since his victory  at the Zozo Championship – his first outing since arthroscopic surgery two months ago to address knee trouble that had slowed him since his triumph at Augusta National.

As Woods himself said after his victory in Japan: “As a player, I got the captain’s attention.”