Allenby and Baddeley chosen for 2011 Presidents Cup

The fairways and greens of Royal Melbourne are well known to local lads Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley. Greg Norman has picked them to join his International Presidents Cup team.

Norman said this morning, he had made his decision to choose Allenby a few weeks ago, but Baddeley and Senden had to fight it out for the final spot at Tour Championship last weekend.

Baddeley played some of his best golf in a few months to finish in a tie for third, only one shot out of a playoff. Senden can be disappointed to miss out. His last few months have been has been much better than Baddeley’s but had a weekend to forget.

The two captain’s choices mean there will be five Australian on the International Team to play in the Presidents Cup, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley.

US Presidents Cup team captain Fred Couples had made it clear that Tiger Woods was always going to be one of his choices a few months ago, but he wasn’t clear that his second pick Bill Haas was playing until his amazing victory on the weekend. Haas’ amazing water shot basically got him on the team ahead of Keegan Bradley who would have been picked if Haas hadn’t won.

On the face of it, the most controversial pick is Tiger Woods who hasn’t played in two months and has almost slipped out of the world’s top-50 golfers.

Final 2011 Presidents Cup teams:

International Team
Jason Day (Aus)
Adam Scott (Aus)
Charl Schwartzel (SA)
K.J. Choi (Kor)
Kyung-tae Kim (Kor)
Retief Goosen (SA)
Geoff Ogilvy (Aus)
Ernie Els (SA)
Y.E.Yang (Kor)
Ryo Ishikawa (Japan)
Robert Allenby (AUS)
Aaron Baddeley (AUS)

Captain
Greg Norman

USA Team

Dustin Johnson
Webb Simpson
Nick Watney
Phil Mickelson
Bubba Watson
David Toms
Hunter Mahan
Jim Furyk
Bill Haas
Tiger Woods
Matt Kuchar
Steve Stricker

Captain
Fred Couples