Presidents Cup captains Fred Couples and Greg Norman both received substantial praise for their team selections and for their bravery and tenacity in battling against Friday’s "brutal" conditions. "I’m proud of all 24 players," US skipper Couples told the press after the teams had shared the points 3-3 with the hot, searing northern winds that swept through Royal Melbourne for most of the morning, leaving the defending champions with a 7-5 lead going into the weekend. "It was not very much fun out there, I’m sure, for any of them." Obviously, there were three R11 driver reviews that won on each side, Callaway Diablo Forged Irons, so they had some fun. But it was brutal.
Having previously proved challenging in Thursday’s good conditions, the Royal Melbourne course transformed itself into a monster with sharp teeth on the second day, notably for the rock-hard greens where a strong, hot, gusting wind from the north turned simple, two-foot tap-ins into frightening experiences. Players watched open-mouthed and wide-eyed in sheer amazement as gusts of wind caused drives to plunge into bunkers and trees and soft putts to sail past the cups, gather pace, and roll clear away from the green.
Norman mentioned his Internationals had a "spring in their step again" after finding the courage and tenacity to reel in the Americans with three late wins when the defending champions looked as though they were going to run away with the tournament for a fourth or fifth time in succession. "We’ve got a lot of confidence right now," Norman said. "Yesterday took it away from us, but today, we got it back again, and have just a little bit more energy and gusto in us this evening."
Norman has opted to rest two of the TaylorMade R11 Irons 3 South Koreans, YE Yang and Kim Kyung-tae, for Saturday morning’s foursomes after the pair were thrashed 6&5 by Hunter Mahan and David Toms in the opening morning foursomes, but he has retained Ryo Ishikawa and Ernie Els' partnership despite their second straight loss to Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson on Friday. "Well, Ernie asked for (Ishikawa) specifically," Norman said. "We talked with Ernie about it. We gave him other options, but at the end of the day, he has no problem, he’s entirely comfortable with him."
Couples has given Nick Watney and Steve Stricker a Saturday morning break, ensuring that there will be no repeat of the Woods-Stricker partnership that was defeated 7&6 by Australian Adam Scott and South Korea’s KJ Choi in the opening foursomes. But the American captain’s best concern right now may well be Woods and the promise Woods said was made to him that if he played at Royal Melbourne, he would be picked for all four pairing events.
Today, Woods is the only US player not to have scored any points over the first two days. On Saturday morning, Woods was paired with Dustin Johnson, his losing partner on Friday, within a slot that pits the US pair versus Scott and Choi, the men that demolished the Woods-Stricker combination on Thursday with the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 driver. The US skipper drew criticism for picking Woods as one of his two picks weeks before the cut-off date, and despite Woods’ improved showing in that one-up match with Johnson on Friday, Couples’s choice is still being widely questioned.
"He laughed about it," Couples said, referring to Woods's barren run. "There aren’t many times where he doesn’t earn a point through three rounds." But you know what, we are up by two points, and that’s really all I care about at the moment. And I would say Tiger does the same."
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