Internationals down but not out in Montreal
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2007 The Presidents Cup | Round One | 28 Sep 2007
Day one of the 2007 Presidents Cup proved to be somewhat of a drubbing for the International Team with the Americans taking an emphatic 5½ to ½ lead after the first day of Foursomes matches.
Only Vijay Singh and local hero, Mike Weir, were able to salvage something from the wreck but even they will be disappointed in allowing a three up lead with just seven holes to play to disappear under the onslaught of a powerful Phil Mickelson and Woody Austin finish.
Their halved match at least has the Internationals on the scoreboard but to have provided such an early lead to the Americans has the Gary Player led team facing a huge task to work their way back into contention for the Trophy.
While many were prepared to contemplate an American lead on day one there would be few who would have felt it would be so comprehensive and, in an attempt to counter this imbalance on the leaderboard, Player has made almost wholesale changes to the pairings for day two. Admittedly the Four-ball format on day two requires a new look approach in order to capitalise on matching and balancing the respective games for each player.
The Americans have also made changes, in fact Captain Nicklaus has made changes to all of his combinations but the Americans have the luxury, at this stage at least, of making such changes in the knowledge that can afford to experiment while the Internationals cannot.
Such an opening day scoreline has not been recorded in previous Presidents Cup matches although in both 1994 and 2000 the Americans established significant opening day leads. Then they were ahead by four points but would go on to record emphatic wins. In 1996 however, the International Team trailed after the first day by a margin of 4 – 1 but came back to very nearly win the Cup that year so while down they are not yet out for the count.
The Internationals were ahead in four of their six matches at various stages today but none were able to hold onto that lead. The late demise of the pairing of Singh and Weir was perhaps the most notable but Rory Sabbatini and Trevor Immelman let a two up lead slip and K.J. Choi and Nick O’Hern matched strides with Tiger Woods and Charles Howell III early in their match and then fought back to a one hole deficit after twice being 2 down. They finally fell victim to a wayward Choi drive at the 16th and a great birdie at the 17th by the Americans.
The Internationals will need to pull back some of this leeway on day two otherwise the event will turn into very much a one horse race by Saturday. There is still plenty of time remaining and plenty of class amongst the Internationals to do so but there is incredible pressure on them to make progress tomorrow. Based on today’s effort just holding on might be an achievement in itself.
Overnight and early morning rain delayed the start of today’s matches by some thirty minutes but it did not prevent a huge crowd form turning out to see the game’s best in action. Let’s hope that by Sunday evening their support has been justified.
