Tiger Woods talks up Stricker pairing for US

Tiger Woods said Tuesday he is keen to reunite with Steve Stricker and play another dominant role for the United States in The Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne this week. The former world number one, who only got into Thursday's team event against the International team as captain's pick after slipping outside the world's top 50, won four points with Stricker in the US win in 2009 in San Francisco. The 14-time major winner, who has not won a tournament in two years and finished third in last weekend's Australian Open, was unbeaten two years ago with a final day singles victory over South Korean Yang Yong-Eun. Stricker, 44, top-ranked in the US team, has recovered from a neck injury to take his place in the team and Woods is encouraged by what he saw of him during Tuesday's practice. "I was pleased and excited to see what 'Strick' was able to do today. He was hitting the ball a long way and had some pop on his swing," Woods said. "This turf is not forgiving. It's pretty hard. (But) he was beating the ball down so that's a great sign. He wasn't sore, wasn't flinching, none of that. He was great." Woods, 35, said he was hopeful of getting together with the world number five in the foursomes and fourball ahead of Sunday's deciding singles matches. "Hopefully, we'll get put out there together. I know that we feel very comfortable with one another and we were talking about it today," he said. "There's a certain comfort level about each other's games, and we know each other's games for the years that we have been on these cups. And knowing how reach other reads putts, I think that helps, too." Woods said the pairings had not yet been decided with rival captains Greg Norman and Fred Couples, the US skipper, to announce their selections on Wednesday ahead of Thursday's foursomes. "No, it has not been decided. A lot of pairings have not been set in stone," Woods said. "We are going to talk about things this evening and figure things out a bit more, and have a better idea going into tomorrow." Woods played down talk about a possible pairing with Australia's top-ranked Adam Scott in Sunday's singles. "We have got a lot of matches to be played and won by then. So that's our main focus. If that happens, it happens," he said. Scott's caddy Steve Williams, who carried Woods's bags for 13 of his 14 major titles before being sacked earlier this year, this month used a racial insult to refer to Woods during an awards dinner in Shanghai. Williams subsequently apologised to Woods for the comment and they shook hands.