MELBOURNE, Australia — Tiger Woods has put himself on the bench for Saturday’s round of Four-ball. Woods played the first two days, but wasn’t among the eight American players who will take on the Internationals in the morning session at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
Justin Thomas, who teamed with Woods the first two days, will partner with Rickie Fowler and take on Marc Leishman and Haotong Li. Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay will battle Sungjae Im and Abraham Ancer. Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson will play Hideki Matsuyama and C.T. Pan. And Matt Kuchar and Tony Finau will test Adam Scott and Byeong-Hun An.
Woods, 2-0 with Thomas, said he didn’t plan to play in all five sessions.
“That was kind of the game plan,” he said. “It would be hard for me to go all the sessions. I’ve been fortunate enough to go out there with J.T. and we’ve gotten two points. J.T. played great and Rickie played awesome this afternoon. They have been looking forward to playing with one another.”
Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, and Gary Woodland will watch from the sidelines with Woods, who could still play in the afternoon Foursomes session.
Captain Woods was energized by the U.S. scoring 2¹/₂ points in the final three matches to slow the Internationals’ momentum.
“It looked pretty bleak,” he said. “But the guys turned it around. They played phenomenal coming in. It was important for us to end the way we did and it totally changed the last hour.”
Ernie Els said his team still likes its three-point lead.
“We would have taken that at the start of the day,” he said.
It was Fowler’s 31st birthday in Australia. He celebrated by teaming with Woodland to stage a late rally and earn a valuable half point. The duo was 2-down at the 16th tee, but a pair of birdies and a tie at 18 halved the match.
“Gary and I were fighting all day,” Fowler said. “I’m happy with how we played, especially coming in the way we did. It was big getting half point there to close out the session especially after being 2-down with a few holes to go.”
Reed has gotten some heckling from the crowd over last week’s incident is the Bahamas, where he drew a two-stroke penalty for improving his lie. “Excavator” is a word that seems to have stuck. Reed didn’t complain. “It’s exactly what I expected,” he said, while his playing partner Simpson said some of the remarks were “undeserved.” Reed and Simpson have gone 0-2 losing to Matsuyama and C.T. Pan, 1-up in Thursday’s Four-Ball and then Friday to Leishman and Ancer.
