MELBOURNE, Australia – As U.S. captains in the Presidents Cup go, Tiger Woods is in an unfamiliar place – behind.
One has to go back to 2005 to find the last U.S. captain – it was Jack Nicklaus that year – who faced a deficit when a day was over but that’s where Woods and the Americans find themselves after the underdog Internationals, who have won the Cup just once in 12 attempts, authoritatively roared out to a 4-1 lead Thursday after the first session of the 13th playing of these matches.
But captain Woods isn’t about to press.
About an hour after the Internationals enjoyed a walkabout around the grounds of Royal Melbourne Golf Club, Woods and Internationals captain Ernie Els gathered in the media center with their assistants to deliver the pairings for Friday’s foursomes matches.
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Woods was asked if he changed his way of thinking after his team’s performance in the opening session. As usual, Woods kept his thoughts close to the vest after making his pairings.
“We have a couple different options rolling into this entire Cup,” Woods said. “The guys have known the game plan, different possible options, and this is one of the scenarios.”
While Woods went out in the first match Thursday with Justin Thomas, intent to get his team off to a good start, he and Thomas will play in the fourth match on Friday. And there weren’t any big shockers from Woods and Els.
Match 6 will see Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar, who did not play in the first session, facing the Internationals’ veteran stars Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen.
Match 7 has Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, who lost as team in the first session, 1 up to Adam Hadwin and Sungjae Im, facing Hadwin and Joaquin Niemann, who paired with Marc Leishman in their loss to Woods and Thomas.
Match 8 has Webb Simpson and Patrick Reed – 1 up losers to Hideki Matsuyama and C.T. Pan – playing Leishman and Abraham Ancer, who came up big alongside Oosthuizen in their 4-and-3 win against Johnson and Gary Woodland.
Match 9 has Woods and Thomas going out against Matsuyama and Ben An, who teamed with Adam Scott for a victory in the first session.
The anchor match has Woodland and Rickie Fowler, who sat out the first day, against Im and Cameron Smith, who sat out the first day.
Woods gathered his team for a brief meeting following the matches and kept his message simple: the Presidents Cup is far from over.
“Just because we lost the session doesn’t mean the Cup’s over,” Woods said. “We have to earn the Cup. They aren’t going to just hand it to us. We’re excited about getting out there tomorrow and winning some matches and turning this thing around. We’ve got an amazing lineup going out there tomorrow, and the guys are all fired up and ready to go.”
Els got that similar point across to his team, as well.
“I didn’t envision 4-1, no,” he said. “So it’s a nice start. You know, we haven’t had a start like this for many, many years. It’s a good start. We’ve got a couple more sessions to go. We’ve got a long event to go still, and you know, we’re loving the golf course. We’d like to get the crowd a little bit louder on our side. It was a little quiet out there today, but hopefully they get going tomorrow.
“But we’re playing an excellent side, and they will be coming back strong tomorrow. So we’ll have to counter that.”
Day 2 foursomes
Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen (International) vs. Matt Kuchar, Dustin Johnson (U.S.), 11:02 a.m.
Joaquin Niemann, Adam Hadwin (International) vs. Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele (U.S.), 11:15 a.m.
Abraham Ancer, Marc Leishman (International) vs. Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson (U.S.), 11:28 a.m.
Hideki Matsuyama, Byeong Hun An (International) vs. Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas (U.S.), 11:41 a.m.
Cameron Smith, Sungjae Im (International) vs. Rickie Fowler, Gary Woodland (U.S.), 11:54 a.m.
These picks mean Tony Finau and Bryson DeChambeau will be on the U.S. sidelines while Haotong Li and C.T. Pan will be on the International bench.
Format
Foursomes (essentially alternate shot) works as follows: Each team consists of two players who play one ball in alternating order on each hole.
Overall, there will be nine matches of foursomes, nine matches of four-ball and 12 singles matches. Each match is worth one point. It takes 15 ½ points to win the Cup.
The Day 2 action starts 11 a.m. local time on Thursday, 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Golf Channel’s live TV coverage starts at 7 p.m.
Following Friday’s action, the captains will announce pairings for Saturday morning’s four-ball matches. Saturday afternoon will then feature another round of foursomes.
