It looked like more of the same for the International Team on the second day of the 13th Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia, before the United States rallied in the last three matches to say in touch.
Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler made huge putts on the 18th hole at Royal Melbourne Golf Club royalmelbourne.com.au and the Americans, who were in danger of being swept in all five matches at one stage, salvaged 2½ points and trail, 6½-3½, heading to the last two days.
“You have to look at where we are and where we could have been,” said International Captain Ernie Els of South Africa, who seemed a bit disappointed at the finish. “Big picture, we’re still in a very good position, but it could have been better.
“Our guys played well again, but (the Americans) made some big putts on the last few holes. That’s why they are champions.”
The Internationals, who won four of the five four-ball matches on day one, stretched their lead to 6-1 when Adam Scott of Australia and Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa beat Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar, 3 and 2, and Abraham Ancer of Mexico and Mark Leishman of Australia downed Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson by the same score.
International yellow lit up that scoreboard in the remaining matches and it looked like a runaway was developing.
“At one point, we were down in four matches and tied in one,” playing Captain Tiger Woods of the U.S. recalled. “It looked pretty bleak, but the guys turned it around coming in during the last hour.”
It started when Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos and UCLA sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole to team with Xander Schauffele of La Jolla and San Diego State for a 1-up victory over Adam Hadwin of Canada and Joaquin Niemann of Chile.
Not long after that, Justin Thomas (pictured right, celebrating with Woods) made a similar putt on the final hole that gave him and Woods a 1-up victory over Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and Byeong Hun An of South Korea.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to make some big putts in my career, but to make that one to win the match with my Captain, who was standing right there, that was awesome,” Thomas said after he and Woods finished the first two days with a 2-0 record.
Woods and Thomas were the only Americans to win as the Internationals, who are 1-10-1 in the Presidents Cup, took a 5-1 lead on the first day.
Cameron Smith of Australia and Sungjae Im of South Korea held a 2-up lead over Rickie Fowler of Murrieta and Gary Woodland with three holes to play, but the American drew even with two straight birdies and Fowler sank a clutch four-foot par putt on the last hole to halve the match.
“Rickie just made the putts when we needed them,” Woodland said.
In four-ball matches on Saturday morning (Friday afternoon in the U.S.), Haotong Li of China will play for the first time in three days with Leishman against Fowler and Thomas, Ancer and Im will face Cantlay and Schauffele, Matsuyama and C.T. Pan of Taiwan will meet Simpson and Reed, with An and Scott going against Kuchar and Tony Finau.
Woods will sit out in the morning, but is expected to team with Thomas again in the alternate shot matches in the afternoon.
And the Americans are hoping for some of the same magic.
For complete results and pairings, visit https://www.presidentscup.com/leaderboard.html
