PRESIDENTS CUP

Site: Melbourne, Australia.

Schedule: Thursday, six alternate-shot matches; Friday, six better-ball matches; Saturday, five morning alternate-shot matches, five afternoon better-ball matches; Sunday, 12 singles matches.

Course: Royal Melbourne Golf Club (6,998 yards, par 71).

Television: Golf Channel (Wednesday, 6 p.m.-11 p.m.; Thursday, 6 a.m.-10:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m.-11 p.m.; Friday, 5 a.m.-9:30 a.m., noon-11 p.m.; Saturday, 3:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.) and NBC (Saturday, 5 a.m.-1 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m.- 3 p.m.).

United States (c-captain’s pick): Jim Furyk, c-Bill Haas, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Hunter Mahan, Phil Mickelson, Webb Simpson, Steve Stricker, David Toms, Nick Watney, Bubba Watson, c-Tiger Woods. Captain: Fred Couples.

International: c-Robert Allenby, Australia; c-Aaron Baddeley, Australia; K.J. Choi, South Korea; Jason Day, Australia; Ernie Els, South Africa; Retief Goosen, South Africa; Ryo Ishikawa, Japan; K.T. Kim, South Korea; Geoff Ogilvy, Australia; Charl Schwartzel, South Africa; Adam Scott, Australia; Y.E. Yang, South Korea. Captain: Greg Norman, Australia.

Series: United States leads 6-1-1.

Last matches: The Americans never lost a session in a 19 1⁄2-14 1⁄2 victory in 2009 at Harding Park in San Francisco. Woods became only the third player in the Presidents Cup to win all five of his matches, while Woods and Stricker became the first partnership in 30 years of any team competition to go 4-0.

Notes: In the 1998 matches at Royal Melbourne, the International team rallied behind the Australian crowd for a 20 1⁄2-11 1⁄2 victory. … Last year in the Ryder Cup in Wales, Europe beat the United States 14 1⁄2-13 1⁄2. … Woods finished third Sunday in the Australian Open in Sydney, two strokes behind Greg Chalmers. … Mickelson is making his record ninth appearance in the event. … Stricker is coming off a neck injury that affected the strength in his left arm. He has been sidelined since the Tour Championship in late September. … The American team has a record six Presidents Cup rookies, while the International team has seven players who have failed to win a tournament this year. … Couples and Norman also captained the 2009 teams. … Alister MacKenzie and Alex Russell designed Royal Melbourne. The composite layout is made up of 12 holes from the West Course and six from the East Course. … The 2013 event will be played at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.