Zimbabwe’s Nick Price, a three-time major champion, and Fred Couples, the 1992 Masters winner, were named team captains for the 2013 Presidents Cup, the US PGA Tour announced on Tuesday. Price will guide the International team of non-European talent against the American squad of Couples in the biennial team golf matches, to be staged October 3-6 at the Muirfield Village Golf Club built by legend Jack Nicklaus.
“This is a huge honor. I’m very excited,” Price said. “It’s probably the most excited I’ve been about anything in the last five or six years. This has been a moment that I’ve been waiting for an awful long time.” Muirfield Village will become the first course to host the US-Europe Ryder Cup matches, the US-Europe Solheim Cup women’s matches and the Presidents Cup.
Couples served as captain of the triumphant US Presidents Cup teams in 2009 and 2011. The 15-time US PGA event winner played in four Presidents Cups, one fewer than Price, an 18-time US PGA winner who makes his captaincy debut.
“It’s an amazing honor,” Couples said. “The Presidents Cup has been a huge part of my career and my life. Those memories are unforgettable, and I feel extremely fortunate to get another chance when we go for a third straight victory.
“To be up against Nick Price, who is one of my all-time favorites, will be a thrill. I know he’ll have the time of his life just like I have.” The Americans are 7-1-1 in the Presidents Cup, including a 19-15 triumph last November in Australia over a global side captained by Greg Norman.
Tiger Woods defeated Australian Aaron Baddeley for the clinching point and Jim Furyk went 5-0 in his matches to produce the US victory at Royal Melbourne. Price was on the Internationals team that beat the Americans in Melbourne, Australia, in 1998, and hopes to hand the US team its first home-soil defeat. “The win that we had in 1998 was just phenomenal,” Price said. “If I could recreate that feeling again for the guys who play at any time, it would just be very special because you never forget those moments.”