The United States made its move in alternate-shot play and narrowed the gap in the 13th Presidents Cup, but could have been even better.
It appeared the Americans were on the way to a 4-0 sweep in the afternoon matches, but the International Team rallied to gain two halves and will take a 10-8 lead into the 12 singles matches on the final day at Royal Melbourne Golf Club https://www.royalmelbourne.com.au/cms in Melbourne, Australia.
“We chipped away at it,” said U.S. Captain Tiger Woods, who sat out both sessions after posting a 2-0 record on the first two days, but will go out first in Sunday singles. “Our guys all played well and we trusted each other.
“There are 12 matches left tomorrow, so there’s a long way to go. I expect my guys to go out fighting and get some red up there (on the leaderboard) early to get some momentum and go from there.”
The Americans need to claim 7½ points in singles to increase their lead in the Presidents Cup to 11-1-1, while the Internationals need 5½ to claim the Cup for the first time since 1998 at Royal Melbourne.
The 2003 matches ended in a 17-17 deadlock at Fancourt Hotel and Country Club in George, South Africa, when Woods and Ernie Els of South Africa, now to International captain, played even through three holes of a sudden-death playoff before darkness left it in a tie.
“We’ve had four great sessions,” said Els, whose team was a heavy underdog at the start. “Our guys are ahead against a really great team. Everybody is really scrambling for every point.”
The Internationals won two of the morning matches and halved another to build a 9-5 lead, but for a long time in the afternoon it looked like the final day might start with the teams even as the Americans led in all four matches on the back nine.
However, in the biggest shocker, Justin Thomas (3-0-1) and Rickie Fowler of Murrieta blew a 5-up lead with eight holes to play, losing the last three holes with bogeys as Marc Leishman of Australia and Abraham Ancer of Mexico (3-0-1) rallying to get a halve.
“I’m speechless,” said Thomas, who put Fowler in a difficult position by driving into the trees on the last hole. “It’s unacceptable. We had our chance and just didn’t execute, I’m disappointed with what I did on 18.
“They made a couple long puts on 15 and 16, but we just let it get away. But we have to put it behind us and go out and get a point tomorrow.”
Said Leishman: “It was pretty amazing, but even when we were behind, the crowd was behind us and kept us going. That got us through and to fight back from 5-down was pretty amazing. We just kept fighting.”
Tony Finau and Matt Kuchar held a 2-up lead over Byeong Hun An of South Korea and Joaquin Niemann of Chile after 13 holes, but the Internationals birdied the next two holes to pull even and the Americans were fortunate to escape with a halve when An missed a six-foot birdie putt on the last hole.
Gary Woodland and Dustin Johnson got the U.S. going in the afternoon with a 2-and-1 victory over Adam Scott of Australia and Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, and Patrick Cantlay (pictured) of Los Alamitos and UCLA and Xander Schauffele of La Jolla and San Diego State got past Sungjae Im of South Korea and Cameron Smith of Australia, also by 2 and 1.
“Even though we fought back, our backs are still against the wall and we have to go out with that same mindset tomorrow,” Cantlay said.
In the morning four-ball matches, Fowler and Thomas got the only full point for the Americans with a 3-and-2 victory over Leishman and Haotong Li of China.
Ancer and Im downed Cantlay and Schauffele, 3 and 2, and C.T. Pan of Taiwan and Hideki Matsuyma of Japan trounced Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson, 5 and 3, while An and Scott halved their match with Finau and Kuchar.
Woods will open the singles matches against Ancer, followed by Finau vs, Matsuyama, Reed vs. Pan, Johnson vs. Li, Bryson DeChambeau of Clovis vs. Adam Hadwin of Canada and Woodland vs. Im.
Rounding out the matches will be Cantlay vs. Niemann, Schauffele vs. Scott, Simpson vs. An, Thomas vs. Smith, Kuchar vs. Oosthuizen and Fowler vs. Leishman.
For complete results and pairings, visit https://www.presidentscup.com/leaderboard.html
