Friday, November 18, 2011

UNITED STATES LEAD 7-5 AFTER PRESIDENTS CUP FOUR-BALLS

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE
The United States will head into Saturday's foursomes leading the International team 7-5 after honours were shared in today's four-ball competition, with Tiger Woods again defeated at a windswept Royal Melbourne.
With five points on offer in each of tomorrow's sessions - the morning foursomes and afternoon four-ball - the International team will be desperate to dominate as they look to close the gap ahead of Sunday's 12 singles matches.
As temperatures reached the low 30s and northerly winds gusted at close to 60kmph today, players from both teams were tested to the limit - particularly on the super-fast, rock-hard greens as it was difficult for them to attack the pins.
The second match of the day summed up just how tough things were as Victorian Aaron Baddeley and Queenslander Jason Day went head to head with former world No 1 Woods and Dustin Johnson.
The contest went the distance and it was Baddeley who ultimately proved the difference on an afternoon Day might prefer to forget, going some way to make up for his poor finish yesterday to pull a point back for the Internationals.
But a day after giving the American team a lead that has not been challenged, Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson claimed their second point from as many attempts in the first match, prevailing 2 and 1 against South African Ernie Els and rising Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa.
And veterans Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk did likewise, finally getting past Queenslander Adam Scott and South Korean K T Kim 2 and 1 by winning the 17th hole, having earlier led by three.
Sandwiched between those results for the Americans was the biggest victory of the day, the 4 and 3 hiding Matt Kuchar and Steve Stricker handed to Victorian Robert Allenby and South Korean Y E Yang.
Victorian Geoff Ogilvy bounced back from his own late collapse yesterday to combine with South Korean K J Choi for a one-hole win over Bill Haas and Nick Watney - the win Choi's second in as many days after he and Scott thumped Woods and Stricker 7 and 6 yesterday.
And South Africans Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel ensured the day would end 3-3 when they finished off David Toms and Hunter Mahan 2 and 1 in the final match of the day.
Shot of the day went to Ogilvy. One of three Internationals with intimate knowledge of the famed sandbelt course he put his team ahead by holing out from a bunker for a birdie at the fifth.
The wind made things so tricky that several times players sprinted to mark their balls on greens for fear of them moving again while others saw putts roll right off the other side of the putting surface when their attempts were only slightly off-line, so slick were the greens.
Watson and Simpson led after three holes only to hand the advantage straight back but Watson's birdie at the sixth and a Simpson par at the seventh gave them a lead they would not surrender, even if Els and Ishikawa twice briefly closed to within one.
Woods' brilliant birdie putt at the fourth put him and Johnson ahead but Day's par at the eighth levelled proceedings and a Baddeley birdie at 13 gave his team a lead they doggedly clung to down the stretch.
Mickelson and Furyk went ahead at the third and were on top by three after eight but saw their lead whittled to one with two to play thanks to some superb saves from Scott and Kim, before Furyk sealed the win with a birdie at 17.
Ogilvy's back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth holes put him and Choi on top but Haas birdies at the ninth and 11th holes tied it up before Ogilvy's par at 12 restored the International advantage and Ogilvy then closed it out with a par at 18.
A day after winning the final two holes with Johnson to halve his match with Baddeley and Day, Kuchar continued that momentum to be the key player as he and Stricker led by two through five and never saw their lead seriously challenged by Allenby and Yang.
The brightest note of the day for the Internationals was in the sixth match as Goosen won the second and third holes to give himself and Schwartzel a lead they stretched to three at one point before hanging on later to beat Mahan and Toms.

TO VIEW THE RESULTS

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