Woods watches on as USA trail
The International team has the lead going into the final day of the Presidents Cup for the first time in 16 years, and it has a trio of rookies to thank for that.
Marc Leishman and unbeaten rookie Abraham Ancer staged a remarkable rally yesterday afternoon in foursomes, going from 5 down with eight holes to play to earn an unlikely halve against Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler.
Byeong Hun An and Joaquin Niemann never led in the final match and scratched out another half-point against Matt Kuchar and Tony Finau.
That gave the Internationals a 10-8 lead going into today’s singles, and a real chance to win the Presidents Cup for only the second time in its 25-year history.
It looked as though it could have been even larger, when the Internationals built a 9-5 lead after the morning session.
The USA finally showed some fight, even with captain Tiger Woods sitting out for both sessions.
But it was an ‘‘unacceptable’’ collapse from American stars Thomas and Fowler that left the Internationals in sight of a shock first triumph since 1998.
They squandered a five-hole advantage to square their foursomes match with Leishman and Ancer, who remains unbeaten on his Cup debut after the extraordinary comeback.
‘‘Speechless. It’s unacceptable for us to get a half a point,’’ Thomas said before cursing himself especially for hooking his drive on the 18th under a tree, from which Fowler could only punch back out on to the fairway.
‘‘They made a couple long putts there on 15 and 16 to keep it going [but] we had our chances and, I mean [being] flat honest, I just didn’t execute. I’m just disappointed in myself for burning that, I felt like, for us on 18.’’
There was plenty of drama yesterday, and all that did was set the stage for 12 singles matches.
Woods sent out Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson for the third straight time in the morning, and they delivered a dud by making only one birdie in fourballs and losing, 5 and 3, to Hideki Matsuyama and CT Pan.
Even more curious was Woods, who won matches each of the first two days with Thomas, benching himself in the morning and the afternoon, and saying it was best for his team.
‘‘I trust the guys,’’ Woods said. Dustin Johnson finally got on the board when he and Gary Woodland took down Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen in the lead match in foursomes. California rookies Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantley rallied from 3 down through five holes by winning three straight holes and pulling away at the end over Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im.
It was only the third time in 13 events that the International team had the lead after team matches. It had a three-point lead in South Africa in 2003, the year the matches ended in a tie. And it had a nine-point lead at Royal Melbourne in 1998, the only team to beat the Americans.
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