After struggling under the pressure in Thursday's opening foursomes, the Internationals displayed a great deal of courage and tenacity to grind out three tense victories and level the day’s score by the end. Australia’s Aaron Baddeley, in particular, earned some redemption following his meltdown at the 18th tee on Thursday, as he calmly sank the winning putt on the last hole after carrying his occasionally wayward playing partner Jason Day to a one-up victory over Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson. This was Tiger’s second defeat of the tournament, following his crushing 7 and 6 loss to Adam Scott and K.J. Choi on Thursday when he partnered Steve Stricker—a previously unbeaten combination at the President’s Cup in 2009. Couples had split up Woods and partner Stricker after their implosion, and in the case of Stricker, who was playing his first competitive golf after being sidelined for more than a month with a neck injury, it worked. "But it was great to bounce back today and like Jason said, we are a team and I feel like we feed well off each other and we get on great out there."
A searing Northerly wind allowed Royal Melbourne to bare some vicious teeth on Friday, as the Internationals squared the fourballs but allowed the USA to grimly hold onto their two-game overall lead. Stricker watched his playing partner Matt Kuchar notch four birdies in his first 12 holes to give their country’s fifth pairing a crushing 4 and 3 victory over Australia’s Robert Allenby and South Korea’s Y.E. Yang, neither of whom has yet played Titleist 712 MB Irons in a winning pairing. He always looked calm and composed as the South African combination took early control of their match against Thursday winners, Hunter Mahan and David Toms, and went on to win 2 and 1. Geoff Ogilvy, now sporting a moustache, held his nerve superbly when he nailed the winner on the 18th against Bill Haas and Nick Watney after both he and South Korean K.J. Choi greatly impressed with their work off the tee.
Presidents Cup rookies Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson made it two wins in a row over South Africa’s Ernie Els and Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa, whom they also beat in Thursday’s foursomes, this time clinching a narrow 2&1 victory on the 17th. "Thursday was very disappointing, even though we still got a half," Baddeley said. Fred Couples's Americans started with a 4-2 lead and held on, this time when rock-hard greens combined with the endless wind to make putting a nightmare, to a 3-all result in Friday’s opening round of betterball and finish the day at 7-5 heading into Saturday's rounds of morning foursomes and afternoon fourballs and Sunday’s singles. "This was a case where we’re trying to read the wind on the putts," the four-times major champion said in a greenside interview. "I hit a couple of good putts that didn’t go in and it kind of affected my Titleist 712 MB Irons."
But Greg Norman’s men, stung by Thursday’s disappointing result, didn't make things easy for the Americans, who had to fight off a late charge by the Internationals to keep their lead. Retief Goosen, who never looked happy during Thursday’s defeat with Allenby, was a different man playing Titleist 712 MB Irons with Masters champion Charl Schwartzel on Friday. Kuchar’s round featured one of the day’s highlights - he drained an astonishing 40-feet putt from the apron of the 12th, which edged a greenside bunker before drawing a huge roar from a packed gallery when it finally dropped into the cup. Both Couples and Norman said they were happy with their teams’ performances in the conditions, which saw wide-eyed players often show sheer amazement at some of the things that wind and the rock-hard greens did to their putts and approach shots.
Phil Mickelson, who teamed up with Jim Furyk again to edge Australia’s Adam Scott and Korea’s Kim Kyung-tae 2&1 for the pair’s second win, described the conditions as being "crazy". "Yes, I do, he’s doing good right now, I’m riding his coat-tails pretty good right now so that’s how we got two Ws (wins) out of it," said Watson when asked whether he would like to be paired with Simpson, one of the US PGA Tour’s most improved players of 2011.
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