Captain Tiger Woods hints he’ll pick himself for Presidents Cup

Tiger Woods said yesterday his fitness was ahead of schedule after arthroscopic knee surgery, and dropped a heavy hint that he might use one of his four Presidents Cup captain's picks on himself.

"I'm probably a week early. My season had ended a little bit earlier than I had expected it," the 15-time Major winner told reporters at Narashino Country Club near Tokyo. "I had the procedure a little bit early and got ahead of it."

Woods is in Japan this week to play in the US PGA Tour's inaugural Zozo Championship, a US$9.75 million (S$13.2m) event that is the second tournament of an almost US$30 million Asian swing.

He then intends to round off his year by playing in the Hero World Challenge on Dec 4, before going to Australia to captain Team USA in the Presidents Cup from Dec 13.

"I thought that I had enough time to rehab it correctly and be ready for this event, be ready for Hero, and I'm going to Australia either way whether I'm playing or not," Woods said.

"I had it done and, as I said, it's been nice to be able to squat down and read putts and I started going at it full speed again."

He has to nominate his side directly after next week's WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai. - AFP