Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace led off the scoring in Saturday’s foursomes at the Presidents Cup with a 3-and-2 victory over Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed. The South African duo earned the Internationals’ only point on Thursday and were in confident mood. They traded birdies early, and Johnson gave the Americans their only lead with an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 7. Matsuyama left a downhill birdie putt short on the par-5 15th, and Holmes made birdie from 8 feet for a 2-up lead.
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Bae is playing in his last tournament before he begins mandatory military service and after a tough year on the PGA Tour needed a captain’s pick to make the Presidents Cup team.
“I didn’t feel like it was any different to any of the other speeches or any of the other talks that we had, to be honest”, Price said. Which shouldn’t be surprising; Oosthuizen had a stellar 2015, finishing second at both the USA and British Opens. The Americans closed it out on the 15th hole.
Mickelson was reluctant to cast blame on the rules officials and said the responsibility lay with himself.
“It’s not the committee’s fault, they made a mistake”.
A tight match turned in the Americans’ favor when Mickelson holed a bunker shot for birdie on the 13th hole for a 2-up lead and kept the margin until the match was dormie. With Johnson in tight for a certain birdie on the 18th, Day made an 8-foot birdie putt for a half-point.
Match 2 has the USA’s Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes, who are 2-0, against fellow Australians Adam Scott and Marc Leishman.
The Internationals have nearly invariably struggled on the opening day of the biennial contest and failed to recover thereafter, and they have a dismal record of just one win and a draw for the 10 previous editions. Holmes hit a sensational fairway bunker shot to 30 feet, and the Americans were conceded the eagle when Leishman had to settle for par. Sitting for the Internationals are Steven Bowditch, Thongchai Jaidee, Anirban Lahiri and Danny Lee.
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The main talking point from that match, however, was the penalties imposed on the Americans on the seventh hole after Mickelson changed the type of ball he was playing.
