All itching to play Tiger

– Every member of the Internationals team wants to take on Tiger Woods (below) at the Presidents Cup, with assistant captain Geoff Ogilvy suggesting Australians Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith and former number one Jason Day are frontrunners.

Woods will be playing captain when he leads a star-studded United States against the Internationals skippered by Ernie Els in the biennial team match-play showdown at Royal Melbourne from December 12-15.

Australian Ogilvy, who played in three Presidents Cups, said all of the 12-man team had put their hand up to face the 15-time major winner, but favoured one of his fellow Australians to take on Woods.

“Jason (Day) can clearly hang with Tiger and go down the stretch with him,” Ogilvy, who with Els was a member of the losing International team at Royal Melbourne in 2011,” told the Melbourne Herald Sun in an interview yesterday.

“But Cam and Leish, they have really stood up the last couple of years and they are so bought into this. Cam is bouncing out of his skin. We have 12 great players, they all have a case.

“It depends on the situation of the match. It depends how the picks go too, we alternate, so Tiger could choose who he wants to play against. There’s no real control there.”

Woods will be the first playing captain since American Hale Irwin in the inaugural 1994 Presidents Cup after giving himself a wildcard.

He spearheads a formidable team that features three of the world’s top four golfers in No 1 Brooks Koepka, third-ranked Dustin Johnson and No 4 Justin Thomas.

Els has a relatively inexperienced team looking to win the event for only the second time in its 25-year history. Their sole win came at the same Royal Melbourne venue back in 1998. –

Melbourne