Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Internationals’ big lead
SPORTS Woods and Thomas only US winners as they toil
THE International team took a 4-1 lead over the United States after the open i ng-day fourba lls in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in Australia.
US playing captain Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas secured their side’s only point as they beat Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann 4 and 3.
Louis Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer beat long-hitting US pair Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland by the same score.
“This is an unbelievable start,” said International captain Ernie Els.
“We haven’t had a start like this for many years.
“It’s really nice to have some points on the board. There were a lot of tight matches and a lot of crucial putts and great golf shots.”
The win by Woods and Thomas over Australian Leishman and Chile debutant Niemann put the first point on the board but it was downhill from there for the US side.
South Africa’s Oosthuizen and Mexico’s Ancer, who was also making his debut, made it 1-1 before home favourite Adam Scott and South Korea’s An Byeong-hun put the
Internationals ahead with a 2 and 1 win over Bryson DeChambeau and Tony Finau.
Canada’s Adam Hadwin and South Korean I m Sung-jae extended the lead when they earned a hard-fought one up victory against Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.
Patrick Reed, who was heckled by the crowd around the first tee following the controversy of his rule break at the Hero World Challenge last Friday, missed a long putt on the 18th as he and Webb Simpson lost to Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and CT Pan of Chinese Taipei.