Tiger Woods to face former caddie Steve Williams in Presidents Cup

Steve Williams was caddie for 13 of Tiger Woods' major wins

Tiger Woods will face his former caddie Steve Williams on the opening day of the Presidents Cup in Melbourne.

Williams was sacked by Woods in July and apologised to his ex-boss for comments he admitted could be "construed as racist" this month.

Woods defended Williams last weekend and will now take on Williams and Adam Scott in Thursday's foursomes.

"It worked out awesome for everybody to have Adam and Tiger play," said United States captain Fred Couples.

"As we said all along, they are still very good friends and I think it's an exciting match."

Woods and Steve Stricker were paired against Scott and South Korea's KJ Choi in the sixth and final match, with the biennel tournament starting with the international pair of Ernie Els and Ryo Ishikawa coming up against Americans Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson.

International captain Greg Norman was pleased to see Woods face Scott on the opening day of the tournament and backed the pair to be unaffected by matters off the course.

"I think it's great for the tournament," he said.

"I personally wouldn't have wanted to be sitting down at the singles and everybody is playing a really tight match and it comes down to the last group or the second to last group and all of this pressure is coming on because it's the first time the two met.

"It played out the way it played out. There wasn't any premeditation.

"At the end of the day, the guys in that last group will be the consummate professionals and go out and play the game of golf representing their International Team and the US Team the way they should do."

United States won the last Presidents Cup - held between the US and a team made up of the rest of the world not including Europe - in 2009, with Woods holing the winning putt in a 19½-14½ victory.

The tournament was founded in 1994 and the US have won all but two of the previous eight events, with the International side's only triumph coming in Melbourne in 1998, and a 17-17 tie in 2003.

Meanwhile, US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has announced that South Korea has been chosen to host the competition in 2015.