Excitement building in Melbourne for Presidents Cup

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Fred Couples anticipates a better performance from the U.S. team than the last time The Presidents Cup was held in Australia.

Bob Verdi, one of the most respected sports writers in the United States, is on site at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia filing stories for PGATOUR.COM to give fans an inside look at the competition, teams, players and captains, as well as the unique setting of the Sand Belt courses in Victoria.

Verdi joined the Chicago Tribune in 1967 covering hockey and baseball. He gradually moved his expertise and skills as a columnist into golf and wrote full-time for the newspaper through 1997. He joined Golf Digest and Golf World as a senior writer in 1997. Currently, Verdi is a member of the Chicago Blackhawks' front office, serving as team historian.

Verdi has covered all eight previous Presidents Cup, including those in Australia (1998), South Africa (2003) and Canada (2007). Verdi will rely on his decades-long relationships with many of the players -- as well as team Captains Greg Norman and Fred Couples -- to focus on the players and personalities of The Presidents Cup and present stories from the event in his individual and iconic style.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- A Tiger Woods triumph Sunday at the Australian Open in Sydney would have provided even extra juice, but as they say around here, no worries. Woods appears ready, yet he could not be more anxious for The Presidents Cup than this world-class city, where summer is rolling in, along with two dozen of the best golfers on the planet. Come Thursday, they will play on a spectacular venue, Royal Melbourne, where the Internationals drubbed the United States team in 1998, 20-1/2 to 11-1/2. To those who watched the Americans go down the drain counterclockwise, it did not feel as close as the score indicated.

"I think we'll be better," said Fred Couples, the visiting captain. He needs no introduction, but just in case, his face is ever present on city buses and trolleys, looking across exit doors at counterpart Greg Norman, a national hero. They both teed it up here 13 years ago, they were captains in 2009 at San Francisco, and they're back for an encore performance this week, in another hemisphere, almost half a globe away.

The Presidents Cup, relatively new but vibrant, is quickly gaining traction as a must-see event although President Obama, due in the country shortly, is otherwise occupied.

"I've been here a while and I can feel the excitement building," said Matt Kamienski, executive director for The Presidents Cup. He has spent 22 months in the area, except for just a couple trips back to mission control headquarters for the PGA TOUR in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He has not acquired an accent, only a deep appreciation for Royal Melbourne, one of the world's finest courses. It is green, it is immaculate, and it is poised to retain its well-earned reputation as the marquee venue among many of the region's Sandbelt addresses that include Metropolitan, Kingston Heath, Victoria, Huntingdale, Yarra Yarra, Peninsula and Commonwealth. If ever there was a mecca for quality golf, it is here.

In theory, Norman could exert nominal influence on exactly how his team's "home course" is set up. But he knows Royal Melbourne well enough to comprehend that no alterations are needed. You don't touch up a masterpiece. You just let it be. Norman merely conveyed to Kamienski that the course should play as it is intended, firm and fast. The layout is not long, just under 7,000 yards, with two par 5s, one of them reachable in two. For starters, No. 1 is a driveable par 4 of 354 yards, but not without its perils. Royal Melbourne occupies a seriously stunning piece of land, seductive from the beginning as you enter on a road hugged by a 15-foot hedge, perfectly manicured.

Royal Melbourne, 36 holes, West and East, was a collaborative effort of the renowned Scotsman, Dr. Alister Mackenzie, his cohort Alex Russell and greenskeeper Mick Morcom. A Composite will serve as the stage this week, as it did in 1998, with 12 holes from the West and six from the East, and only one substitution. To facilitate a smoother crowd flow in a corner, the 14th hole will be the 16th from the East, replacing the 4th from the East. Both are par 3s, the latter longer and presumably more difficult, although the green on the new hole requires utmost respect. The sequence has been changed from the 1998 Presidents Cup, as detected the other day by Mike "Fluff" Cowan, able caddy for Jim Furyk.

"I've got my yardage book from 13 years ago, and I noticed something different after the first four holes," said Cowan, who anticipates more benign weather. In 1998, the temperature topped 100 degrees during the second day of competition. Fluff worked for Woods then and recalled, "my feet were full of blisters it was so hot." In 1998, however, the Presidents Cup was staged in mid-December, when Australia's summer is warming toward its peak. November tends to be more temperate -- the past weekend felt quite spring-like -- but the wind is notoriously fickle.

"We could have multiple conditions within hours," noted Kamienski, citing a colossal rainstorm last Wednesday.

Team cabins are on the grounds, neighboring structures where captains and players will gather before, after or during the matches. The temporary structures are still undergoing some interior decorating, but several basics are in place already. America's quarters will feature a large picture of the multi-talented Golf Boys -- Rickie Fowler, Ben Crane, Hunter Mahan and Bubba Watson in full regalia. Also on the walls shall be snapshots of assistant captains Jay Haas and John Cook when they were young. Very young. Two years ago at Harding Park in San Francisco, by way of putting Michael Jordan at ease, the U.S. delegation posted a giant blowup of the world's greatest basketball legend being slam-dunked on by a foe of the Chicago Bulls.

Jordan was a late scratch for this rendition, so late that he's got a page in the official program. But he's back home as an executive/owner now, trying to unravel the NBA impasse between management and labor. One suspects Jordan would prefer to be here instead of there. He had a blast with the guys in 2009, and the feeling was mutual. Couples, in keeping with the light-hearted landscape, also sanctioned a black-and-white oldie from "Caddyshack" featuring Bill Murray as Carl Spackler and one of his gopher co-stars.

Meanwhile, the Internationals have opted for a more serious, or motivational, motif. Thus, their home-away-from-hotel bears stunning photographs of notable conquests from all sports, including the thrashing of the U.S.A. here in 1998. There are also shots of South Africa's rugby World Cup champions from 1995 and 2007, South Korea's Olympic baseball gold medalists from 2008, and Japan's women's World Cup soccer conquerors from earlier this year. Just near the entrance, there is a toast to "Steve Waugh's Cricket Magic" from 2003. That needs no further explanation and if it does, there shall be none forthcoming from yours truly, to whom cricket is a mystery and shall forever remain so.