International captain Nick Price admits his team needs to put up a strong showing at the Presidents Cup this week.
Price with Adam Scott during Tuesday's practice round at Muirfield Village
With the US coming out on top in all but one of the nine Presidents Cup played so far, Price is well aware that there is a sense that the Internationals need a strong performance in order to justify the tournament's continued existence.
"All of us who've been involved in the Presidents Cup know how important this one is," Price said at a news conference at Muirfield Village on Tuesday, the golf club in Columbus, Ohio, set to host the biennial event.
"I wouldn't say it's a must-win. That's a hard thing to put on anyone. But this one needs to be competitive.
"More important than anything else, this Presidents Cup needs to be very competitive because the last four ... I honestly believe they have not been that competitive."
The Internationals have only one victory in 1998 in Melbourne and a draw in South Africa in 2003 to show for their efforts, and Price featured in both those tournaments as a player.
"When we started out with the Presidents Cup, the initial guys, myself and Greg (Norman) and Ernie (Els), we so enjoyed watching the Ryder Cup and so wanted to be a part of the Ryder
Cup-type format," said the three-time major champion and former world number one.
"And then the Presidents Cup came along and that was fantastic. The first couple were pretty exciting but as we have seen in the last decade, since 2003, it just has not been as competitive as we would like.
"And you can debate why; there's many reasons. But for all of us, this is a really big week."
There was some good news for Price this week with the news that British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen has recovered from a neck-related injury that has kept him out of the game for two months.
"Louis is 100 percent," said Price.
"He played at the Dunhill last week in cool temperatures, and that's always hard when you're coming back from an injury, to play in cool temperatures. He missed the cut but he said he played really well and he didn't have any pain.
"I think the warmth this week will help him a little bit more. He's hit balls and he practised for probably a week-and-a-half before he went to the Dunhill. He's going to be ready."
Price said his team had only just gotten together as a group on Monday night, and he'd already received some valuable input as to possible pairings. He and US captain Fred Couples will announce their pairings for Thursday's fourball matches on Wednesday.
"With the dynamics of our team, with guys from all over the place, probably the first time all of them have ever been in one room together was last night, so it was a good evening," Price said.
"Just trying to find out from the guys who they felt they wanted to play with, who they would be comfortable playing with ... I got a lot of good feedback from the guys on that. They were pretty sure about who they wanted to play with.
"Obviously with the six Southern Africans, that was easy, because a lot of them had played amateur golf together and had played alternate-shot in some four ball golf over the years."
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