Golf Central

Get your notebooks and quotebooks ready, folks, because word says that Fred Couples will be the captain of the US team for the 2009 Presidents Cup in San Francisco, California.

Freddie - the loveable bungler of the English language and one of golf's most popular players, among his peers, the press and fans - would ostensibly be getting a trial run before possibly being handed the reins of the American Ryder Cup squad in 2010 or 2012. Couples has been a member of four Presidents Cup teams with a 3-0-1 singles record.

Journalists will be licking their chops at the prospect of five straight days of interview sessions with Couples, who is as likely to innocently turn a phrase on its head as he was likely to turn loose an effortless 300-drive in his playing prime.

Golf World is reporting that Couples will take over for Jack Nicklaus, who has captained the last three US Presidents Cup teams, in the 2009 edition at San Francisco's municipal-course jewel, Harding Park Golf Course. An official announcement is expected Tuesday.

And we want the phone number for Couples' conference call, at which he is likely to say: "You can't replace a guy like Jack Nicklaus. He's a legend and he played in a different time. And you can't replace a guy who played in a different time, unless you know how to travel in time, and I'm just a golfer, man." ... Or something like that.