Presidents Cup Day 4: The Games Begin

by Vic Williams | photo by David Cannon/Getty Images | posted October 9, 2009

For a few brief moments, some members of the American Presidents Cup team thought they heard Retief Goosen concede Justin Leonard’s 14-inch putt on the final hole of their anchor match in Thursday’s opener.

Apparently not.

The stoic South African said he was just talking to himself. So up stepped one of the world’s best putters to finish off a 1-up win for him and teammate Jim Furyk, and give the United States a 4-2 lead after Day One’s alternate shot matches. So, of course, Leonard proceeded to gork the kick-in — rimmed it out to give the International team a much-need halve and keep them within one point of their hosts on a terrific tree-lined, tricky-tough Harding Park layout.

International captain Greg Norman acknowledged his squad’s good fortune. “We are one behind, but I feel as if we have our tails up a little, believe it or not.”

I certainly believe it. Despite one definite blowout — Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker racking up six birdies in their 6 and 4 mauling of Geoff Ogilvy and Ryo Ishikawa — and a rousing four-hole birdie binge by Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim to close out Mike Weir and Tim Clark 3 and 2, the Internationals played very, very well. Early in the day they led 4 to 2, and U.S. Captain Fred Couples decided to hand the hole-to-hole player advice duties to co-captain Jay Haas — only one guy can do that at a time per competition rules — and spend his time “hitting guys on the butt” when they made crucial putts and such. Norman also decided to let his cohort, Frank Nobilo, follow the guys and dole out advice, while he took on the job of cheerleader. The strategy worked well on both sides; while no team except for Tiger and Stricker ran the table — there were some ugly shots out there, and more than a few missed putts, of which Leonard’s was simply the most egregious — nobody cashed it in early. Everybody fought to the very end and seemingly had a great time doing it.

And nobody got riled when they could have had legit reason to. Even with an idiotic cell phone abuser interrupted an Ogilvy putt five — count ’em, five — times, and another clown yelled “Noonan!” when he finally took the blade back, the even-keeled Aussie didn’t lose his temper. Tiger, who’s all class all the time, apologized to Ogilvy for the boorish Yank onlooker’s breach of etiquette, then proceeded to keep pounding the ball and cheering Stricker’s unconscious putting anyway. “This is not what golf is all about, what this team event is all about,” Tiger said of the yahoo. But Geoff handled it great and was a class act through the whole process.”

So far, the entire event is being conducted with class and a refreshing kick-back attitude. Phil and A.K. were clearly having a great time during their match, even when they knocked it all over the yard and fell behind, or scored a point with an ugly bogey at No. 6. “We felt like at 1-down, if we could just get one little spark to get the round going, that’s all we needed,” Mickelson said. “At 13 I put one in the fairway, and [Kim] a short little sand wedge, and he knocked it three feet. Sometimes you just need that one little shot.”

That led to three more birdies and a seemingly easy win, perhaps the crowd-pleaser of the day. And Couples will send Phil out first again on Friday, this time with Justin Leonard for the event’s first four-ball (better ball) match, against Goosen and a resurgent, somewhat vindicated Scott. Good stuff.

In fact, all of Friday’s matchups show that no matter how Couples and Norman scrambled the teams, they’d fall perfectly into place. That’s what happens when every guy is a solid stick — even Ishikawa, who swears he’ll do better now that the Tiger matchup is by the boards. And since the two captains are over their first tee jitters — they admitted how tough it was to watch, helpless, as everybody got started Thursday — they can concentrate on just letting it all play out.

Not that Couples can completely relax. “I think it’s going to be cake until Sunday, really,” he said to laughter from the media. “I know that’s going to be the worst day ever for us, watching 12 matches go and we’re trying to get to that magic number of points.”

The operative word there is “magic.” So far, it’s being made, missed gimmes and all.

Vic Williams is editor and publishing partner of Fairways + Greens, a bi-monthly magazine dedicated to golf, travel and lifestyle for the West and beyond. He has written thousands of stories on golf and will cover every facet of the game right here, primarily travel but also the major tours, equipment, personalities and more. Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it