Speith-Tiger pair in Presidents Cup?

September 30, 2013. The 20-year-old, Jordon Speith earned majority votes from prominent golf writers to be a suitable partner for world’s top golfer Tiger Woods in forthcoming Presidents Cup. The speculations over probable partner began after Tiger-Stricker breakup news came in last week.

Last week, in an interview with Golf.com, Presidents Cup assistant captain Davis Love III suggested that the longtime international match play pairing of Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker could be headed for a breakup.

“We’ll have some of the same pairings, but I think you’ll see some differences from what we did at the Ryder Cup. Woods and Stricker, they’ve enjoyed playing together, but I think they might be tired of playing together,” Davis had said.

[highlight] We’ve seen how Phil became energized while playing alongside a fired up Keegan Bradley, so this week I’d like to see Tiger play with Spieth. Jeff Ritter, a senior producer at Golf. Com says [/highlight]

Woods, after changing a dozen partners in Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup competition over the years, seemed to have finally found his match in Stricker. The duo carried a 6-2 record into the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, where they suffered three consecutive defeats against teams of Ian Poulter/Justin Rose, Lee Westwood/Nicolas Colsaerts and Sergio Garcia/Luke Donald.

Love said that captain Fred Couples “already knows who he’s going to play together” at Muirfield Village, but the rest of us will just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, Golf.com conducted a survey with expert writers of Sports Illustrated and Golf Magazine and found majority of them suggesting Jordan Speith as the best probability for Woods.

“We’ve seen how Phil became energized while playing alongside a fired up Keegan Bradley, so this week I’d like to see Tiger play with Spieth. The Stricker-Woods pairing is definitely over. Why not try sticking Woods with the youngest guy on your team, just to see what happens?” Jeff Ritter, a senior producer at Golf.com suggested.

Michael Bamberger, senior writer at Sports Illustrated said, “The ideal playing partner for Tiger Woods would be a clone of Tiger Woods. I’d go with Spieth, since Fred seems to understand that this thing is a TV show and that pairing would make for good TV. Or, in the Stricker role, Zach Johnson.”

“Jordan Spieth. Likes the big stage, won’t be daunted and won’t mind playing the beta dog to Tiger’s alpha,” said Josh Sens of Golf Magazine.

The new partner’s name is yet to be announced by US PGA administration.