Day two honours split as Internationals blow chances

Gold Coast ace Adam Scott has turned up the heat on underdone American bomber Dustin Johnson as the Internationals retained their three-point Presidents Cup lead over the USA team, splitting yesterday’s foursomes at Royal Melbourne.

A stirring late fightback from the US kept Tiger Woods’ hot favourites in the contest after the Internationals at one stage held a 6-1 advantage and also led in the remaining three matches.

Johnson, who hasn’t played since the Tour Championship in August because of knee surgery, is 0-2 for the week and shaping as a liability for Woods’ team.

The recuperating world No.5 was benched for this morning’s round of four-ball matches.

Paired with South African Louis Oosthuizen, Scott’s match against Johnson and Matt Kuchar turned on its head when the US pair threeputted at 8 and Johnson ploughed a three-wood deep into the tee-tree at 9.

“We got lucky there on 8 … and from there on in, Louis and I just kind of applied the pressure,” Scott (pictured) said of his second straight win.

“We hit fairways and greens and never let up. They made a couple of mistakes, we made a couple of good putts for birdie and managed to walk them in with a couple to go, so it was a really top match from us today.

“It’s a great start to the week but there’s a lot of golf to be played.”

Johnson, returning after arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in September, said there were positives to take from yesterday’s 3&2 loss. “I felt like we played well,” Johnson said.

“We had two three-putts there, not hitting bad putts. We lipped-out quite a few putts. I felt like we played well, played solid. Obviously they played very well, too.

“It was a tough match and we hung in there. We did get off to a nice start but this golf course is difficult, and especially it’s really difficult in alternate-shot.”

Johnson declared before the tournament began that: “I wouldn't be here if I wasn't ready to play.”

Kuchar nailed clutch putts at 5 and 10 but was also ragged in his first outing. He pairs with Tony Finau against Scott and South Korean Byeong Hun An this morning.

“We are digging ourselves a bit of a hole,” Kuchar said.

“We need to regroup but thankfully, there's still a whole lot of golf left.

“There's so many veterans on the team, a handful of rookies; listen, we've been behind before … and made big comebacks.

“This is still only halfway through, not even halfway through. There's still so many points to play for.”