Abraham Ancer clarifies infamous Presidents Cup comments about desire to play Tiger Woods

Prior to the 2019 Presidents Cup, Abraham Ancer was asked who he would want to play in singles if given the opportunity to choose. Without hesitation, Ancer responded.

“I would like to play against Tiger.”

He got his wish. Ancer faced off with his idol during the Sunday singles session in Melbourne, losing to him 3 and 2. Woods didn’t forget Ancer’s pre-match comment.

“Abe wanted it, he got it.”

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The words from Ancer were taken as cocky and brash by some prior to the match, but in reality, he meant no harm with the comment. On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, Ancer joined Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz to clarify the context of his original quote.

“It kind of sucked, that experience,” Ancer said. “It was such a cool experience for me, that whole event. And then having said I would love to play my hero growing up in such an awesome event. And then all of that got spun (out of context).”

Often times players can blame the media for spinning their words out of context, and this is a textbook example of that. The original question was in Spanish, so the tone of his answer was likely lost in translation.

“I left that week and I was just gassed,” Ancer said. “I was sad … I should have been really proud, but when I left I was just like, ‘I can’t believe that that happened.’”

Check out the entire episode of Subpar below as Ancer discusses his first Presidents Cup experience, Rory McIlroy on the range and more.

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Zephyr Melton

Golf.com Editor

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with the Texas Golf Association, Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and women’s golf. He can be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.