Americans take another early lead

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey — The opening ceremony at the Presidents Cup was unlike any other in golf with former U.S. presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton on the first tee.

The results were all too familiar. The Americans led at some point in all five of the foursomes matches Thursday at Liberty National. They won the first three. And when they jumped on a ferry to take them across the New York Harbor to their Manhattan hotel, they had the lead.

Behind a new tandem of Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas, and an old one of Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, the Americans jumped out to a3 1/2 -1 1/2 lead. It was the sixth consecutive time they led after the opening session.

“Jordan mentioned that this first session is pretty critical and we need to go out there and take care of business,” Fowler said. “I feel like as a team, we did a really good job of that. If we can do the same thing tomorrow and win another session, it puts us in a great position.”

Thomas and Fowler lost only two holes in a 6-and-4 victory over Hideki Matsuyama and Charl Schwartzel. Spieth and Reed improved to 6-1-2 as a tandem in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup. Spieth holed a 35-foot putt on the 11th hole right when it looked as if Emiliano Grillo and Si Woo Kim might gain some momentum. Instead, the match was over three holes later, 5 and 4.

Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar remained unbeaten in four matches, not taking the lead until the 16th hole and making it stand in a 1-up victory over Adam Scott and Jhonattan Vegas.

“We’ve been off to poor starts for a while on Thursdays,” International captain Nick Price said. “They have this ability to come back and bounce back, and they have done it. They did it last time in Korea.”

The lone bright spot for the International team was Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace. The South African duo pulled away for a 3-and-1 victory over U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger.