The International team made another move during the morning session on Day 3 of the Presidents Cup as it took 2.5 out of four points during four-ball to increase its lead to 9-5 over the United States. But it was the Americans in the afternoon foursomes that made some gains, cutting their deficit to 10-8 entering the final day of action at Royal Melbourne.
What started as a sleepy, blase day at Royal Melbourne turned wild late as the Internationals won the last two of the last three matches on the course in the morning session. The Americans looked as if they might sweep the afternoon session and tie the entire Presidents Cup as they at one point led 4-0 with just a couple holes to go. But with its two best players on the course blowing a five-stroke lead with eight holes left in their round, the U.S. ultimately only managed a 3-1 score.
No team that has ever trailed entering the final round of singles golf has ever won the Presidents Cup, so the United States — a 3-1 favorite entering the event — is looking to buck history. What went down on Day 3 in Australia? Let’s take a look.
Day 3: Four-ball — Internationals lead 9-5 (morning)
|
Justin Thomas/Rickie Fowler |
3&2 |
Marc Leishman/Haotong Li |
|
Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele |
3&2 |
Abraham Ancer/Sungjae Im |
|
Webb Simpson/Patrick Reed |
5&3 |
C.T. Pan/Hideki Matsuyama |
|
Tony Finau/Matt Kuchar |
TIED |
Ben An/Adam Scott |
J.T. did J.T. things once again as he buried the winning putt on the 16th hole. The Americans never trailed. This time — instead of a putter-slam celebration like we got yesterday — Thomas was all business. This match was surprisingly chippy as Haotong Li played out of turn on the first hole and make several small match-play gaffes that seemed to annoy the U.S. side. At one point,Thomas jokingly (?) mocked the International sideby mimicking a putt he felt he should have been given. The end result? I would rather play 2000 Tiger Woods than Justin Thomas in match play right now.
From there, the Internationals took the next two matches, and neither was particularly close. Ancer and Im birdied their last three holes. After a sweet close on Day 2 from Cantlay, that duo combined to play the four-ball session on Saturday 2 over on holes they finished. That’s not good. Somehow, Simpson and Reed were even worse. They made a single birdie on the combined 30 holes they played, and Pan and Matsuyama smoked them 5&3. Ancer, Im and Pan — all International rookies — are a combined 7-0-1 on the week.This should also be noted.
In the final match, neither team ever got up by more than one hole. After Finau tied the match up with a clutch birdie on No. 14, the Internationals birdied two of the next three, but Finau covered them up on No. 17 and then buried a clutch putt on No. 18 to secure a half-point and keep the U.S. within four going into the afternoon foursomes matches.
In a surprise move, captain Tiger Woods sat himself again in the afternoon and ran some familiar pairings out there again to varying degrees of success. It is the first time in nine Presidents Cup events that Woods sat an entire day of competition. It was a curious decision to say the least, but it’s tough to argue with the afternoon results. Here’s a look at how the foursomes session went.
Day 3: Foursomes — Internationals lead 10-8 (afternoon)
|
Dustin Johnson/Gary Woodland |
2&1 |
Adam Scott/Louis Oosthuizen |
|
Justin Thomas/Rickie Fowler |
TIED |
Marc Leishman/Abraham Ancer |
|
Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele |
2&1 |
Sungjae Im/Cam Smith |
|
Tony Finau/Matt Kuchar |
TIED |
Ben An/Joaquin Niemann |
The U.S. put four flags on the board early with Thomas and Fowler roasting Leishman and Ancer on the front nine with a 33 to the Internationals’ 39. That match looked over early, but Leishman and Ancer battled all the way back, and the U.S. side finished bogey-bogey-bogey for an improbable tie. It sucked a little bit of the life out of what looked like could feasibly be an afternoon sweep.
Elsewhere, D.J. and Woodland put away the sweet-swinging Scott-Oosthuizen crew 2&1 after the Internationals lingered longer than the Americans would have preferred. Cantlay and Schauffele beat Im and Smith by the same number; Im and Smith started with two birdies on the first two holes and didn’t make another one the entire day. In the finale, An and Niemann trailed for the first 14 holes but gave themselves a birdie putt on No. 18 to win the match. An missed it, but they got another half point to go with the wild Leishman-Ancer half point and will go to the singles matches with a 10-8 lead.
Why does that matter? Well, as mentioned above, the team trailing going into singles has never come back to win this event.
“We chipped away at it,” Woods told Golf Channel. “We knocked their lead down one. We have 12 matches tomorrow, a long way to go. I expect my guys to fight, myself to fight. Get out there and hopefully get some red up there early and get some momentum. Get this thing rolling.”
The U.S. will have to if it wants to raise its eighth Presidents Cup trophy in a row. And if the first three days of this competition taught us anything about these two seemingly-uneven squads, it’s that the locked-in International team is going to come out swinging at the U.S. team early on Sunday. Whether Tiger’s crew can weather that storm and finally overtake this impressive group after three straight days of trailing them will determine how we remember this unexpectedly great event.
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