MELBOURNE, Australia — Tiger Woods was the best player on the U.S. team on Thursday, so it was no surprise when he penciled himself in for the Friday Foursomes session of the 13th Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
Woods will again team with Justin Thomas as the U.S. tries to rally from an unprecedented 4-1 deficit after Thursday’s opening round of Four-Ball. Woods and Thomas produced the day’s only points for the Americans, beating Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann, 4&3. They’ll face Byeong Hun An and Hideki Matsuyama in the third foursomes match.
The day leads off with Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar going against Louis Oosthuizen and Adam Scott. Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay will meet Adam Hadwin and Niemann in the second match. Webb Simpson and Patrick Reed will take on Marc Leishman and Abraham Ancer, while the final pairing will feature Gary Woodland and Rickie Fowler going against Sungjae Im and Cameron Smith.
Woods is confident his team can turn things around.
“This is a long four days,” Woods said. “I mean, we have to go earn this Cup. Just because we lost the session doesn’t mean the Cup’s over. There’s a long way to go. A lot of points available. The guys will regroup and we’ll come out tomorrow ready to go.”
Tony Finau and Bryson DeChambeau will sit out the Foursomes after losing their Four-ball match to Scott and Hun An. But Finau is confident the U.S. can change the momentum.
“There’s a lot of golf to be played,” Finau said. “We know there’s a lot of golf in front of us. The Internationals played some great golf today and they are leading 4-1. We are down three points but there’s so many points to be had, so many points to be won, so we are already looking ahead to [Friday] and trying to put our best squad together to try and rack up some points {Friday].”
Kuchar, who sat out Thursday’s Four-ball, said the Americans aren’t down after their opening-day collapse.
“I was really impressed with the team room after a 4-1 result,” he said. “It was a great vibe, even after that result. That goes a long way, those positive feelings, those positive vibes. We saw a lot of good energy in the team room and I think that goes a long way.”
Ernie Els, captain of the International team, admitted he was surprised by the Internationals’ dominance on Day 1.
“It’s a good start,” he said. “We’ve got a couple more sessions to go. We’ve got a long event to go still. 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 [Friday].”
