Sangmoon Bae thrilled the home crowd by holing a walk-off 12-foot birdie putt on the last hole to help the International Team rally to within 5 1/2-4 1/2 of the United States on the second day of the 11th Presidents Cup at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club-South in Incheon, South Korea.
The Internationals, who lost four of five foursomes matches on the first day, earned 3 1/2 of the five points available in fourballs on day two.
“I had to take care of business last night,” said International Captain Nick Price of Zimbabwe. “What I saw on the golf course (Thursday), I had to address with the team. “The only thing that I had control of last night was to go to those guys and say, ‘Relax, try and play golf, and just go out there and do what you did so well throughout the year to get you to this situation.’
” … That putt Sangmoon made on No. 18 today was probably the highlight of the last two days for us.”
Bae and Danny Lee of New Zealand, who was born in South Korea, got past Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker, 1 up, while South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace won for the second straight day by downing the top U.S. team, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson, 4 and 3.
“If you play against guys like Dustin and Jordan, you need to think they are going to make everything all the time, and that was our mindset,” Oosthuizen said. “We never let the foot off the accelerator. We were pushing the whole time.”
Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand and Charl Schwartzel of South Africa beat Chris Kirk and Bill Haas, 2 and 1, while Australians Jason Day and Adam Scott halved with Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson.
The last of those matches featured a bizarre ruling when the Americans lost two holes at No. 7, where Mickelson illegally switched golf balls and Day won the hole with a birdie.
Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes gave the Americans their only victory of the day, 2 up, over Aussies Steven Bowditch and Marc Leishman.
