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Abraham Ancer has revealed how the fuss over his comments about Tiger Woods overshadowed his Presidents Cup debut in Australia last month.
Speaking ahead of the Mayakoba Classic, a month prior to the Presidents Cup, Mexican rookie Ancer said that he hoped to pitched against the 15-time major winner in the singles at Royal Melbourne.
He subsequently got his way, falling to a 3&2 defeat at the hands of US playing-captain Woods in the opening match of the concluding session of the match. The victory set the tone for a superb final day for the Americans, who won six and tied four of the 12 matches for a 16-14 overall victory – their eighth consecutive Presidents Cup triumph.
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Afterwards, Woods was asked about Ancer’s comments, replying: “Abe wanted it, he got it.”
However, speaking to reporters in Hawaii where he is playing in this week’s Sony Open, Ancer said that his words had been “twisted” by the media and taken to mean something they didn’t.
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“I got asked who, out of the 12 guys, would I like to play on a big stage in a big event like that,” said the 28-year-old. “I said obviously I would like to play my hero growing up, Tiger Woods. Be an incredible experience.
“I learned a lot about media and how it can get twisted. Yeah, definitely got twisted and just the context how I said things. And maybe Tiger didn’t know the way I said it. He just kind of took it from what he was reading or what he heard, which is fine.”
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The defeat to Woods was Ancer’s only loss in an otherwise excellent debut in the biennial competition, in which he scored three-and-a-half points from a possible five. However, he admits the furore over his comments on playing Woods somewhat took the sheen off the experience.
“Yeah, maybe it was a little bit of a downer because just people didn’t know how I said it. Some guy like reached out to me [to say] ‘you were really, really cocky’. I was like, ‘what’?
“I just a little thrown off by some of the comments. I try for them not to get to me because it was such a great week, such a great experience. I feel like I played some good golf. But, yeah, definitely didn’t like how it got twisted the way I said things for sure.”
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