Presidents Cup teams http://www.presidentscup.com/
Friday four-ball results, Saturday foursome pairings http://www.presidentscup.com/livescoring.html
There was some awful golf, there was some brilliant shots, there was a rarely invoked penalty, but most important there was a tremendous rally by the Internationals in front of massive crowds to breathe life back into this Presidents Cup and set up an enthralling set of foursome and four-ball matches on Saturday.
After trailing 4-1 at the completion of the foursomes on Thursday, which Charl Schwartzel said "really woke us up" they went out overnight (here) and won 3 matches and halved another and as a result the U.S. will go into Saturday's morning foursomes with a 5.5 to 4.5 lead.
After a strong pep talk from captain Nick Price following Thursday's debacle Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace got them off to a massive start handily beating the heavily favoured Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson, 4 & 3 after Oothuizen rolled in a long birdie putt on the eighth, and then Grace won nine and ten with birdies of his own. Spieth said afterwards it was the "worst round of golf I've played in a long time, so yeah Merry Christmas to them"
In the second match Danny Lee let nerves get the better of him but his partner, Sangmoon Bae delighted the enormous Korean crowd when he dramatically rolled in a 20 foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to clinch the win over Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler. That putt will be one of the lasting memories of this first Presidents Cup played in Asia.
Charl Schwartzel back in the team after a bout with a vicious virus played beautifully and along with his partner Thongchai Jaidee gave the Internationals their third win by beating Bill Haas and Chris Kirk 2 & 1 after both Americans drove into the water on the 18th.
The only U.S. win was supplied by Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes, who beat Marc Leishman and Steven Bowditch 2 up in a sloppy match full of sprayed tee shots, missed putts and some brilliant recoveries.
Now to the feature match where Australia's two best, Adam Scott and Jason Day managed a halve for the Internationals playing Zach Johnson and Phil Mickelson who as usual was at the center of attention after he lost a hole when he was penalized for changing his ball to a different type at the 7th hole, then holed a brilliant 140 yard bunker shot
First Phil on the changed ball incident. "It threw me for a loop that we have a one-ball rule that we've never really had and I didn't think much about it. But it's my responsibility to know that. I should have at least asked about before I teed off."
He explained that since Day and Scott were so long they could reach the par 5 7th, he changed to a firmer ball in order to get more distance off the tee. Now the plot thickens because after he was informed he had violated the One-Ball Condition, an official incorrectly told Mickelson to pick up his ball when Mickelson actually could have continued playing in an attempt to win or halve the hole. The U.S., which was all square in the match, lost No. 7 to Day’s birdie
As a result captain Jay Haas was informed that, as a penalty for Mickelson’s violation, another hole was added to the team’s deficit, dropping them to 2 down in the match.
Later we received this missive from the Match Committee read: “The penalty for breach of (the one-ball rule) is a one-hole adjustment to the state of the match. This means that at the conclusion of the seventh hole … the state of the match is adjusted by one hole.”
The problem I have with all this is that Mickelson could have continued playing the hole in order to win or halve it. Had he halved Day’s birdie at No. 7, the U.S. would have been just 1 down after the penalty was applied.
Next the bunker shot. After he drove into a fairway bunker with a pretty steep lip at the 12th Mickelson took his stance then cleanly clipped a pitching wedge from 140 yards, and we all watched as it landed on the green, jumped to the right and went straight in the hole for an eagle to give the United States the lead, his second holed bunker shot this week.
Jason Day got that one back with a birdie at the par-5 15th hole but his partner Adam Scott who has changed back to a traditional length putter missed opportunities at the next two holes failing to make a 20 footer at the 16th and 10 footer at 17. He changed back and forth from a crossed handed grip, to the claw, to a normal grip and that tells you all you need to know about his putting woes.
In fact despite getting the 2 hole penalty in their favour it took a pressure packed 7 foot putt at 18 by Day to salvage a halve in the match.
So there are 8 matches on the slate for Saturday (they start around 7pm EST tonight) and I have posted the morning foursomes which the US have dominated so far in the link above and they will be followed by four-balls and there is rain is in the morning forecast in the morning.
Rain or shine, we now have a match to look forward to after the International rally.
Bryan Angus
No comments:
Post a Comment