United States lead by point at halfway

in Presidents Cup in California

Overall score: US Team 6, Internationals 5.
Friday four-balls: US Team 3, Internationals 3.
Thursday foursomes: US Team 3, Internationals 2.

FROM THE PGATOUR.COM WEBSITE
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
SAN FRANCISCO -- Justin Leonard took out some of his frustration on the practice green Thursday evening. A few minutes alone in the locker room helped, too.
========================================
Related links
Daily Wrap-Up: Day 2
Saturday's pairings
Friday's Four-ball results
Live Report: Friday Transcripts: What they said Mickelson, Leonard cruise Clark, Weir take on juggernaut
==========================================
But as mad as he was at himself for missing the 3-footer at No. 18 that gave the Internationals a halved match in the final foursomes of the opening day (Thursday) of the Presidents Cup, Leonard was more worried about his teammates. He knew the other Americans would wonder how he was handling the disappointment, so he decided to break the ice.
Before Leonard went into the U.S. Team room, he asked Jim Furyk's caddy, Mike (Fluff) Cowan, to go over to the bar and line up five shot glasses filled with water. Then Leonard stormed into the trailer and slammed the door.
"I threw my stuff down on the floor and went straight to the bar and hammered five shots of water," Leonard recalled. "I did chase it with a beer, which the beer tasted a lot better than the water did. But (it was) just to kind of let everybody know that I was okay.
"I think a few of the girls were a little nervous for me when I was doing that, but my wife said she was just kind of rolling her eyes. She knew exactly what I was doing."
With that performance, Leonard was telling his teammates he'd be ready on Friday for his four-ball match with Phil Mickelson -- and he was. The Texan birdied the first hole and sealed the 3-and-2 U.S. victory over Retief Goosen and Adam Scott with an 11-foot putt on the 16th hole.
"We had a fun day today, and I just thought it showed a lot of heart on Justin's part to get the match started the way he did, coming out with a birdie and making that critical putt on the first hole," Mickelson said.
"When we had a chance to take control of the match on 14, he did, he rolled that putt in on the par 3; and we had a chance to close it out on 16 and he knocked that one in, too.
"I thought it showed a lot of class."
Prior to this week, Leonard and Mickelson had played on four Presidents Cups and three Ryder Cups -- yet the two veterans had never been paired together. Both were glad U.S. Captain Fred Couples made the call.
"I've wanted to play with Phil for a long time and I think after what happened yesterday, Phil wanted to play with me," Leonard said. "He's a great coach out there, he's so positive, and he wanted to be the one to help me get through today. I didn't play great, but I played okay, and Phil hit some unbelievable shots out there and I was able to make a couple of putts on the last few holes to help us along.
"It was a lot of fun playing with him."
Within the hour after Leonard finished his match the two were talking about their strategy for Friday's match. By focusing on the future, the 12-time PGA TOUR champ was able to forget the gaffe and move forward.
"So he really helped me mentally get into playing today, and it was nice making that putt at the first hole," Leonard said. "Of course, he did have a little eight-footer inside of me, but still nice to get off to a start like that."
Mickelson and Leonard combined for consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th holes, respectively, to break open a tight and exciting match. Mickelson's put the Americans 1 up while Leonard capitalised with a 14-footer on No. 14 after both Goosen and Scott found the greenside bunker.
"We were actually sitting on the bench over there on the tee after we both hit and we both hit good shots inside 15 feet or so," Leonard recalled. "And as we were walking up to the green they were both in the bunker and we were talking about (how) ... we need to make one of our putts in order to go 2 up and take control of the match.
"We kind of talked about that for the 170 yards it took us to get to the green. A couple times I had (Phil) help me read putts, and we both agreed on what my putt was going to do. The thing is, he did have a 12-footer or 10-footer right behind me, but it was nice to make that putt."
Then came the 11-footer to win the match and "kind of redeem myself a little bit," Leonard recalled. "We read the putt together and saw the same thing. It felt really nice to make that."
Leonard acknowledges he's "way more equipped to come back from a disappointment like yesterday at this point in my career than I was early on." And that's a good thing, too, since he goes right back out with Furyk again in foursomes on Saturday morning against Scott and Ernie Els.
There will be 10 points available in Saturday's double session. The U.S. holds a narrow one-point advantage after going 3-3 in the Four-ball matches that had earlier appeared headed for an American rout.
"The fact that they won a couple of matches on 18 today, I'm sure they want to feel like momentum is on their side," Leonard said. "But, you know, we did halve this afternoon, and ... with 10 points available tomorrow, five in the morning and five in the afternoon, we feel pretty good about the pairings that we are putting out.
"Everybody is playing pretty well. So go out, focus in the morning and try and get a lead in the morning and build on that momentum in the afternoon."