What Was Greg Norman Thinking?

First and foremost, if you’re a fan of the International Presidents Cup team, remove any objects around you that may be used as projectiles, and if there are children in the room, please ask them to go and play somewhere else as the slew of expletives that are bound to come flying out of your mouth after reading this may scar them for life.

If you’re a fan of the American Presidents Cup team, try not to fall out of your chair with laughter.

Yesterday in Washington D.C., Presidents Cup captains Fred Couples and Greg Norman announced their captain’s picks for the 2009 matches which are set to take place in October.

As expected, Couples selected Hunter Mahan and Lucas Glover.

Then came Norman.

Now, despite 88 worldwide wins and two majors, Norman has had, well, let’s just say some difficulty closing out big time tournaments during his career.

There are few forms of pressure in the game more intense than captaining a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team.

Perhaps the pressure is beginning to get to Norman before the matches even begin, as his captain's picks were nothing short of mindboggling.

Okay, well, here it goes—Greg Norman selected Ryo Ishikawa and Adam Scott with his two captain's picks for the 2009 Presidents Cup.

The selection of Ishikawa is not overly surprising. Although Ishikawa is inexperienced and has not been all that successful at big time international events, he has won three out of his last seven tournaments on the Asian Tour.

Granted, winning an event on the Nationwide Tour is probably more difficult than winning the Fujisankei Classic. But at least an argument can be made for Ishikawa’s place on the international side.

But Adam Scott? 

Are you kidding me?

Just as Ishikawa could be considered one of the hottest international players as of late, Scott is about as cold as it gets.

Scott missed six consecutive cuts earlier in the year before finally breaking out at the Crowne Plaza Invitational, where he managed to scratch and claw his way into a tie for 64th.

In recent weeks, Scott has missed the cut at the British Open, tied for 51st at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, missed the cut at the PGA Championship, missed the cut at the Wyndham Championship, and was eliminated from the FedEx Cup playoffs after tying 58th at The Barclays.

Scott has managed to break 70 just twice in his last 13 rounds on the PGA Tour. At the PGA Championship, he even had a hard time breaking 80. Scott followed up his opening round 82 with a 79 which, needless to say, didn’t earn him a weekend tee time at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

Fourteen months ago, Scott was ranked third in the World Golf rankings and was paired with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson during the first two rounds of the 2008 U.S. Open in what was touted as the "ultimate paring."

Since that time, Scott has dropped a mere 50 places in the World Golf Rankings.

"He was really a logical choice," Norman said yesterday about his selection of Scott.

Huh?

Granted, Norman and Scott have the Australian connection going on, but even Australians would have been furious with this selection, at least those who were hoping to see Geoff Ogilvy and Robert Allenby take part in a Presidents Cup victory.

If Norman wanted to go the Australian route with his selection, he would have been better off picking Michael Sim, who has won three times this year on the Nationwide Tour.

Heck, Norman would have been better of picking the No.1 club pro from his native Queensland, Australia than Scott.

In fairness, the pickings were slim for Norman.

Rory Sabbatini would have been an obvious choice based on stats alone.  But, watch him play a few holes and you'll quickly realize why he's not the most popular guy on tour.  Sabbattini’s continuous whining and hot-headed antics are difficult to watch, let alone have to play alongside of.

Shingo Katayama finished fourth at the Masters and has won four times on the Asian tour this year. Katayama may not be as hot as Ishikawa has been as of late, but Katayama is far more experienced and has also shown an ability to perform fairly well at big time international events.

The most obvious pick of them all would have been Jeev Milkha Singh.

Singh, who is currently ranked 45th in the world, has won four times this year, has two second-place finishes, and 12 additional top 10s.

Singh has had more success this year than Ishikawa and Scott combined.

Maybe Norman knows something the rest of us do not. Maybe while most of the PGA Tour was attending the Deutsche Bank Championship last week, Scott was out somewhere shooting four consecutive rounds of 59.

Or, perhaps the selection of Scott will go down as just one more shocking Greg Norman moment.