Simpson, Spieth hope to make Presidents Cup team

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Webb Simpson was disappointed when his second-place finish at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational didn’t give him a big boost in the standings for the United States team for the Presidents Cup.

He had started the week 11th but only jumped one spot. So, with just three weeks remaining to play his way into the top eight automatic qualifiers, Simpson decided to call U.S. Captain Tiger Woods.

“I thought I was going to move up more and I didn't, and he told me to play better, so that was funny,” Simpson recalled Wednesday with a grin. “I said, Fair enough.”

Simpson is currently 149 points out of the No. 8 spot held by Gary Woodland – and none of the players ranked higher than him are competing this week at the Wyndham Championship in the regular season finale. The team will be finalized after the BMW Championship.

Woods will then make his four Captain’s Picks after the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions, which will be played Oct. 28-Nov. 3 in Shanghai. But Simpson, who has a win and two other top-three finishes at the Wyndham Championship, wants to go ahead lock down his spot.

The Presidents Cup will be played Dec. 9-15 at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia. It will be the 13th time the biennial event has been contested with the Americans holding a 10-1-1 advantage.

“You want to qualify because from BMW to HSBC, that's a long waiting period and that gives guys who are maybe not quite on his radar a chance to play their way onto the team,” Simpson said. “So yeah, I'm thinking about it a lot. I want to make it.

“That was my first team event in 2011 in Melbourne and I can't imagine how cool it would be to play for Tiger, the guy that we all grew up watching. Yeah, I hope I'm there.”

Jordan Spieth also has Presidents Cup aspirations – and he comes to the Wyndham Championship with a much taller task in front of him. He’s ranked 27th in the U.S. standings after two uncharacteristically quiet seasons that have seen Spieth post a combined total of just eight top-10s finishes.

Spieth, who lost in a playoff at the 2013 Wyndham Championship in his only other appearance at the event, isn’t assured of a spot in the first two Playoff events, either. He’s currently 67th in the FedExCup and only the top 70 make to the BMW Championship, being played this year at historic Medinah Country Club.

Spieth has played in every Presidents Cup since Fred Couples picked him as a rookie in 2013, as well as every Ryder Cup. Making the U.S. Team is a “massive goal” for the three-time major champion, who calls the international match play events the “most fun weeks of the year.”

“I understand that as of now I'm pretty far out of it, but I'm not going to think much about it,” Spieth said. “The best way for me to, you know, deserve a pick is to take care of my own business over the next few weeks. …

“With this many years, I'm aware of when I'm close and I'm aware when I'm not. So, I'm just trying to stay as patient as possible, give myself as many birdie putts, greens in regulation being an important stat for me over the next few weeks, and should work my way up and have a chance.”