USA convincing in Presidents Cup victory

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 The Presidents Cup | Day Four | 12 Oct 2009

It was perhaps fitting that the game and this week’s most dominant player, Tiger Woods, should hole the putt to effectively secure the Presidents Cup Trophy for his USA side. The Americans won today’s singles matches by 7 to 5 and the overall week by 19½ to 14½, securing the event for the sixth time in eight encounters with one tie in 2003 and the lone International victory in 1998.

Woods’ ten foot birdie putt at the 13th hole to end his match against Y.E. Yang gave the Americans the point to take them to 17½ from where they could not be beaten irrespective of whatever happened in the matches remaining on the golf course.

While Woods’ victory clinched the almost inevitable outcome for the US side, the damage on day four had been done by those who played before him. Stewart Cink’s 4&3 victory over a struggling Adam Scott in the second match of the day had the momentum heading in the wrong direction for the Internationals who needed a near miracle if they were to turn around their three point third day deficit against an in-form home side.

Soon after Hunter Mahan made their task even more difficult when he defeated Camilo Villegas 2&1 and the margin was 14½ to 9½.

Anthony Kim’s convincing 5&3 win over Robert Allenby made it 15½ to 9½ and when Sean O’Hair disposed of Ernie Els by a massive 6&4 margin it became 16½ to 9½.

Although the Internationals led in several matches on the golf course, Tiger Woods sealed the victory and gave the Americans their fifth consecutive point of the day when he defeated Yang and it would not be until the gritty Mike Weir salvaged a halve against Justin Leonard that the Internationals were able to advance on their overnight score of 9½. It was then 18 to 10.

By then the remaining matches were being played for the gallery, pride and personal Presidents Cup records. Ogilvy defeated the previously unbeaten Steve Stricker by 2&1, followed by victories to Tim Clark, Ryo Ishikawa and Angel Cabrera with Vijay Singh and Lucas Glover halving their match and Phil Mickelson completing his unbeaten tournament by winning his match against Retief Goosen at the 17th.

Tiger Woods led the overall individual points tally with 5 points, Phil Mickelson was next with four wins and a halve, while Justin Leonard, Anthony Kim and the best of the Internationals Ernie Els and Ryo Ishikawa secured three points each.

Ishikawa and Anthony Kim were the most successful rookies with their three points although given that Kim has already played a Ryder Cup it was Ishikawa whose rookie performance was most impressive. The 18-year-old Japanese superstar defeated Kenny Perry 2&1 and rubber sealed his place in this team for a long time to come.

Lucas Glover, who appeared sadly out of sorts all week, was the worst performed of the Americans in terms of points, earning only one halved match in today’s single encounter against Vijay Singh while Camilo Villegas with none, Retief Goosen with a half point and Adam Scott and Angel Cabrera with one point each were the worst performed of the Internationals.

Cabrera was however impressive today in his victory over Jim Furyk and indeed was a little unlucky yesterday as he played better than his loss in the afternoon Four-ball would indicate. He was paired with Scott in that encounter and although he had little help from the Australian he still managed to take the match to the 18th.

Norman’s controversial selection experiment with Scott did not work although it did start promisingly when he paired with Els for a victory in the opening day Foursome. For the balance of the week however Scott struggled on the greens in particular, highlighting the importance of an in-form all-round game for success in any form of golf.

Whether any of the other players in line for that final place in the International side would have done any better is debatable but it is unlikely they could have done worse and that one selection might remain one of the most talked about issues of the event.

Despite the result the encounter was a success with huge crowds of 27,000 per day flocking to the Harding Park Course to see the games greats battle it out.

Blessed with Woods’ presence the same may well be the case at Royal Melbourne in two years time also but for the event to build further momentum and credibility it will be important for the International side to have been as dominant there as the Americans have been this week.

Discuss this article in our forums