In their own words: Greg Norman and Fred Couples

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With PGA TOUR legends Greg Norman and Fred Couples set to play this week in the Shell Houston Open, we asked the two Presidents Cup captains (Norman for the International team, Couples for the United States team) to provide their thoughts on three points of discussion:
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1. Mutual respect

GREG NORMAN: Similarities are the fact that we actually enjoy other people's company. I think the tip of my intensity on the golf course is different from Freddy's. I have more of the piercing eyes. When I get out there I want to get the job done no matter what it took. I wore my heart on my sleeve lots of times. That's probably the only thing that really stands out as different. From a golf standpoint Freddy hits the ball a long way; I used to hit the ball a long way. He's a great shotmaker, I was a pretty good shotmaker. He was always a good putter. In his day, he made the putts that he needed to make. So like I say, 95 percent of the things we have are very similar. But our personalities, our belief in what we see with the players, what we see with the game and what we give back to the spectators and to the game are very very similar. FRED COUPLES: For me, I think it first started by watching and hearing how great (Norman) was and then him coming on TOUR and playing, which is not an easy thing. I really admired the way he played. I do that on a few people, but what I then liked was all the things he did and then got picked on for lots of things that made no sense. And I could never understand that. GREG NORMAN: Freddy never judged anybody. Freddy gets my respect because he never judged anybody. When you're in the arena in an individual sport, when people judge you from another person's opinion and not knowing the facts, you get taken back by all that. Freddy never did that with me. I know that. I know there've been times we'd be in a locker room in a rain delay and I'll make the analogy up there at the Memorial. I'll never forget many times he'd say, 'Hey, come sit over here.' And even though some of the other players proabably judge me for the wrong reasons, Freddy would never do that. And I always respected him for that.

2. Captain's pressure

GREG NORMAN: We deal with that because that's what we've done 30 years of our lives. No matter what happens on the golf course, someone is going to say there is a right way and a wrong way. You have to accept that. You're going to be a backboard and you have to kind of attract those types of opinions or thoughts. So you just know they're there. And freedom of somebody's opinion, freedom of the press is what it is. Our experience in the past has got to be just that. It has to be strong enough that we know we can deal with everything we have to deal with. FRED COUPLES: I love that. This is my 28th year on TOUR -- I've very rarely been picked on for many things. I've made a ton of mistakes, I'm going to make a bad pairing at the Presidents Cup, I'm sure. But I love that part of it and I see no reason to go to bed Sunday night if we lose, or if we win, I'm still going to make the same mistakes. If I put the pairing wherever it goes and they win a match and we win by a point or half a point, I don't look great -- the guys that play well look great. I'm well aware of that even for captains I've had before. Unless you make some real, real blunder that the whole world sees one way and you're then stubborn and you do it that way, then you do it. But in golf for my whole career I've been not a hard practicer; I would try to practice harder and I would feel like I haven't played as well and wear myself out. And then all of a sudden I'd pop up and do this. But in the Presidents Cup, it's going to be the whole year but it's going to be really six fun days, and I really don't see a problem with any of that. Jack Nicklaus had no worries at all. He didn't do everything absolutely perfect. But he took care of his team and we all loved it. ... With Jay (Haas, assistant captain), I'm going to have a better team and he's going to hugely helpful, but once we get out there, we're just two captains that are going to giggle and give a stern look every now and then -- but this idea of even showing a dislike for anything to me is irrelevant. The only time he gets like that -- I would be my whole life, be defensive when he busts his butt playing and supporting this event and doing things he believes in and people don't quite see it the same. That's why he runs his businesses and does them well. And that's why if there's any advantage he's got it, and I'll learn from listening to what he says. Honestly because I feel if it's going to happen a year from now, that's a naive way to look. Clothing is going to come, the guys are going to come, the two picks are going to be easy but none of the stuff is going to be easy. But that's my goal. Just like you go and play a U.S. Open. The rough is this tall, the greens are rock hard. Am I going to worry about it Tuesday night? Of course not. I'm going to go tee of Thursday and if I play really well, I'll be fine. If I don't then the course was tougher and I didn't play well.

3. Learning from other Captains

GREG NORMAN: I would say and this is no disrespect, I monitor how Peter Thomson would do it. Monitor more of what happened around Peter or happened around the captains or happened around Gary Player. I want to see how they dealt with the situation. From my perspective I don't want to try and do everything Gary Player did. I think that would be wrong, a mistake and I wouldn't be fulfilling the right position as being a captain. My position is to elevate the Presidents Cup and hand the baton on to the next person and make sure the Presidents Cup is heading in the right direction. ... As long as I know I can do that (it will be a success). The same with Freddy. Believe me if I can see something in Freddy and Freddy can see something in me that we might be doing the right thing for the Presidents Cup, I hope he'd come to me and say Greg you know maybe doing it this way, not during the tournament but leading up to the tournament we can get this thing across the line a little bit easier. To me, if anyone asks me if I have a chance to be in Australia for 2011 and they ask who would you like, I'm going to say Fred Couples. It's as simple as that. He's got my vote. I think it's important that we both -- it's very difficult to do it just for one, I've got to be honest with you, because you get so wrapped up in things you shouldn't get wrapped up in. I think whether you win or lose going to the second one the transition and the whole motion would be easier. And I know out bylaws in the Presidents Cup doesn't Say you can be second captain. I think there's a lot to be said about that. I think if you saw what happened with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, as the first one past, the next one was a little better and the third one was even better than the second one. So I think that's one of the things I said in the beginning. If I can do something to help Freddy go somewhere, and I can be there in 2011, I want to be there. It's as simple as that. FRED COUPLES: I've had five Ryder Cup and three Presidents Cup captains. The first one was Hale Irwin who was a playing captain. He was ... I don't want to say irrelevant, but that he was running around and because we didn't know what we were doing. I mean, the players were here and there. I think Greg was right on point on several things you have with Gary Player and you have this guy but you do whatever you do. Just like when I wanted to announce Jay Haas because I felt pressure. I didn't want Davis sitting there for months thinking wow is he going to pick me or I'm going to make this damn team. I'm a big reaction guy -- so when I brought up Michael Jordan I definitely wanted him. When I mentioned Robin Williams, I've been on nine of these teams and they are extremely boring. It's not for the captains, but I said him to get reactions from the players. They all loved it. So I don't want to throw something three weeks before and have people show up and give a speech. They have Lou Holtz or whoever Paul has and that's the freshest in my mind. It's Faldo on one side and the other Azinger wants -- Azinger did a phenomenal job. I'm sure Faldo did the exact phenomenal job. And if Faldo would have won it would have said he's changed forever and done a great job. He did a great job until the winning putt went in. And I think once that goes away. If I win I look at him and give a big hug and smooch and say that was a blast. And I expect the same, but I would never look at him differently when their team wins, or for the fact that there's really no mistakes. We're going to be sitting and Greg's going to say, correct, Vijay. And I say Azinger, and then he says Nobilo, and then I do it. It's a fun little thing. When it gets to the end you're going to look and say, "Oh my God, Greg, can I change that name up there?" It's not going to happen but I'm going to do that and I'm not going to be like leave and I screwed up because it's 12 guys playing. It's a different system (than the Ryder Cup)... Everyone plays. Everyone plays and there's more points, more excitement. There are a couple guys who play two matches at the Ryder Cup and they play two years to make the team and they play two matches. Wow. That's no fun, correct?