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GREENSBORO — In the first week of golf after the fall of Tiger, the sport moves on. Only days after glory's last shot, now comes the first ricochet.

We're a day out from the Wyndham Championship as golf resumes its routine, a routine that was altered for the first time during the weekend when Y.E. Yang took down Tiger Woods in the final holes of the PGA Championship.

Fred Couples was there, and like many of the old-school pros who remember the old order of things, he simply doesn't buy into all the hand-wringing.

"I think it showed how great Y.E. played," Couples said Tuesday.

Couples was on a teleconference with Greg Norman and reporters from around the globe talking about the upcoming Presidents Cup competition, and, of course, the conversation darted all around the issues of the day. And eventually, it centered on the game itself in the days after Woods' shocking loss to Yang in the season's final major.

Couples was asked if there is a different feel to the sport this week. Has anything changed?

"Has anything changed?" he said, repeating the question. Then he paused a long time.

Couples, who played during the weekend at the PGA, thought before he answered, saying he'd read a lot about Woods' loss, saying he'd heard the analysts and the experts discussing it, saying he'd watched on television as people breathlessly explained the defeat and its long-term impact on golf and the world order.

"The other gentleman played a phenomenal round of golf," he said.

The only thing that has changed, he suggested, is that the pressure of winning majors finally dragged down Woods, as we knew it would eventually. Golf, as it turns out, is still bigger than Tiger Woods.

"He was not going to go 20-for-20," Couples said of Woods' impressive run of 14 major wins while leading after 54 holes. "That he'd gone 14-for-14 was staggering."

And now the sport moves on.

This week's Wyndham will be one of the last chances for Couples to assess the team he will captain for the Presidents Cup matches Oct. 8-11 in San Francisco. Norman will captain the International team. Couples wants to see U.S. Open winner Lucas Glover play himself onto the team and would love to see a handful of others play their way on, too. Of the 12 available spots, 10 have been filled by a points system. Couples will have two captain's picks and possibly a third if Phil Mickelson chooses not to play.

"I believe in my heart he's going to play," Couples said, "so we want him there. We want Amy there."

Mickelson's wife, Amy, is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and he said he would wait to see how she's doing before making a final decision on the team event. Mickelson has given no indication that he will play at all after next week's FedEx Cup opener at the Barclays.

Both captains said this week's Wyndham will go a long way in determining who plays in the Presidents Cup. Norman even mentioned struggling Adam Scott as a player who could potentially play his way onto the International team. Couples mentioned David Toms, who is here this week, and a few others who aren't as having a chance to make the U.S. team.

Couples is also here to play golf, having started his own comeback from back ailments that flared and have limited him to 12 events this season. He'll turn 50 on Oct. 3, and the chatter has already started on the Champions Tour. Johnny Miller said recently that Couples will be the biggest senior star since Arnold Palmer.

He once was the biggest star on the regular tour and still draws crowds the way Palmer once did. At the 2006 Masters, which Couples almost won at age 46, the largest galleries all week were those following Woods, Mickelson and Couples. Some things never change.

But most things do. Couples' time passed, as did Norman's. Golf gives most players a small window of opportunity at the top. The slightest slip, a balky putter, an ailing back, and it's over, even for the best of golfers.

No one is suggesting that it's over for Woods, and neither Couples nor Norman said it Tuesday as they discussed the state of golf in the world in the days after the stunning outcome at the PGA. Instead, they talked about Yang and the impact of his victory on the order of things, and not of Woods' defeat.

Couples will step to the first tee Thursday, and it will seem like old times. He'll have a large gallery following him away from the Tudor clubhouse at Sedgefield and a large gallery following him back in. Golf never really changes, just the names at the top of the leaderboard. If there's a different feel to the sport this week, that too is fleeting.

Glory never takes its last shot. It just moves on to the next guy.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com