He only made news in South Korea this year during a failed bid to extend his waiver for mandatory military service.
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That half-point involved Mickelson, and it led to confusion and a pair of mistakes at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea.
After being benched for the opening day, Bae was a rock on Friday, carrying the erratic Lee throughout and sinking a match-winning 12-footer on the last to the delight of the home fans.
“I’m pretty sure he was nervous”. “So he had to stand up and man up, and hit that golf ball”.
The global team had not won a team session since the Saturday afternoon fourballs at Royal Melbourne in 2011. Bae and Korean-born Danny Lee walked off with a 1-up victory over Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker. Next up is a double session Saturday of eight matches that will shape the final round.
Internationals skipper Price, who played in five Cups, said he had been on tenterhooks throughout the day.
The South African pair of Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace were again the heroes for the Internationals, while the four Australians were less successful.
It was never more critical to end that drought than Friday, especially with the Americans up 4-1.
“Pricey had the idea to get us up in there because we had a good one yesterday and try to lead the whole team from the front”, said Grace. “We’re just one point back, and you know, a lot can happen”.
All that was overlooked because Mickelson didn’t know the rules – and in this case, neither did the rules committee.
And they did it on a day that had threatened to be overshadowed by a controversial incident on the seventh hole where Phil Mickelson was penalised for playing the wrong type of ball. Mickelson found the fairway and was sauntering to his ball when he noticed USA captain Jay Haas following them. “I think a few of the guys on the team were a little nervous, which is to be expected”.
The penalty for violating the one-ball rule is called a one-hole adjustment, meaning the one hole is awarded to the other team.
Russell admitted that Mickelson could have continued on the hole but was advised he was disqualified from it by the rules committee in discussion with the match referee Gary Young.
As the penalty is just a one-hole adjustment in the match, Mickelson should have been allowed to finish the hole. Day and Adam Scott earned the halve, however, when Day made an 8-foot birdie on the 18th, and Zach Johnson got up-and-down from behind the green by making a 3-foot birdie putt. Based on scores for each hole, the Americans would have won.
Mickelson rallied by holing another bunker shot, this time with a full pitching wedge from a fairway bunker on No. 12, and making big putts. That ultimately cost the Americans a victory.
Mickelson was reluctant to cast blame on the rules officials and said the responsibility lay with himself.
Day didn’t bite on Mickelson’s barb. Price said he spoke to his team Thursday night about trying to relax, and he saw enough of that to give him hope going into the weekend.
The Australians were paired together and Day and Scott halved their match with Mickelson and Johnson to secure the half-point, before Marc Leishman and Steve Bowditch were beaten by Americans JB Holmes and Bubba Watson 2 up.
The biggest blow for the global side came from Oosthuizen, when he rolled in a 70-foot birdie putt on the eighth hole to square the match.
Grace had birdied the ninth and he followed that up on the 10th, with Oosthuizen’s birdies on 14 and 15 sealing the win.
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“We both played very poor rounds of golf and we didn’t have many chances, so it was Merry Christmas to the other guys”, he said.
