Bae Sang-moon delivered the biggest moment of his career. Golf fans and even professionals were quick to take to social media to criticise the rules.
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Emily: Team US ends the Ryder Cup’s nerdy kid brother of an event once and for all by wiping the course with the Internationals – 20-10.
Global team player Jason Day, right, of Australia…
Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen set the tone with a 4-and-3 win over Jordan Spieth and Justin Johnson, while Charl Schwartzel and Thongchai Jaidee won the anchor match, 2 and 1 over Bill Haas and Chris Kirk.
The Americans led 7.5-6.5 going into the fourballs session Saturday afternoon.
“We definitely had our opportunities”, Holmes said. “But that didn’t happen, so nothing you can do about it”.
The second mistake was from the rules committee.
Phil Mickelson with rules offical Gary Young on the seventh hole.
Day wound up making birdie to win the hole, and the match was all square after six.
Both sides took the blame.
Phil Mickelson’s screw-up regarding the one-ball rule not only was somewhat weird, but an example of how the Rules of Golf can be nuanced enough to where even the best players in the world – and, in this case one of the game’s most respected rules officials – botch them on one of golf’s biggest stages. “I was apprehensive watching him”, said Lee. He was in the fairway just over 290 yards from the hole, which he could have reached with a good shot.
Mickelson’s mistake wound up costing the Americans a half-point when the match ended in a draw.
The defending champions’ sole fourball triumph saw JB Holmes and Bubba Watson go two-up on Marc Leishman and Steven Bowditch. “Had he been able to play out and make a 4 and tie the hole, then it would only have been 1 down instead of 2 down”.
The opposition proceeds on Saturday with foursomes and fourballs. “Today was a big turnaround”.
It started with the South Africans, who are undefeated this week. The turning point was a 70-foot birdie putt by Oosthuizen across the green at No. 8. Grace followed with a pair of birdies for a 2-up lead, and the Spieth-Johnson tandem didn’t put up much of a fight.
He paired Bae with Seoul-born New Zealander Danny Lee, also a Presidents Cup rookie, for the four-ball match Friday against Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker.
With Day winning that gap to put the Internationals one up in the match, they all of a sudden got themselves two ahead after the punishment was forced on the Americans before the eighth. No team trailing going into the last day has ever won.
Chipping away at the Americans’ lead around the turn, the match was all square by the 18th and, incredibly, Bae found himself standing over a 12-foot putt to beat Fowler and Walker.
The vibe great story of the day was South Korean Bae, who birdied the last to give his group the win.
The US lead could have been slightly larger.
World number two Jason Day said he was delighted the event would be played in his homeland in four years’ time. But there is a one-ball rule, and the penalty is a one-hole adjustment for the violation.
Because the correction came after the players had finished the hole, Mickelson wasn’t allowed to go back and replay the hole. They didn’t lose the hole twice, just lost the hole once and suffered a one-hole penalty.
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Holmes ran the long eagle putt about five feet by the hole, and fellow Australian Adam Scott was furious when his birdie putt – that seemed to be the best chance for a halve – ran about eight feet by the hole.
