International captain Greg Norman has a major problem with his 12-man Presidents Cup squad at Royal Melbourne – five of them have yet to win a match.
Down 5-7 to Team USA, today’s foursomes, and four-ball, of 10 matches will have a vital bearing on the end result.
Norman desperately needs Ernie Els, Ryo Ishikawa, and especially Royal Melbourne expert Robert Allenby to fire this morning. The captain has dropped the other two winless Koreans YE Yang, and Kim Kyung-Tae, from the foursomes.
But USA captain Freddie Couples is cruising with only one winless squad member, the former world number one now ranked 50th – Tiger Woods.
In his seventh Cup appearance, Woods has never started 0-2. Two years ago he went 5-0, one of only three with a perfect record in Presidents Cup history, joining compatriot Mark O’Meara in 1996, and International Shigeki Maruyama in 1998.
Couples has taken a huge gamble by teaming Woods with the big-hitting Dustin Johnson in the foursomes. Both are spraying their shots, a fatal flaw on the treacherous layout.
The foursomes match-ups for this morning – Team USA first:
* Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson against Allenby and Geoff Ogilvy.
* Bill Haas and Matt Kuchar against Els and Ishikawa.
* Hunter Mahan and David Toms against Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel.
* Woods and Johnson against Adam Scott and KJ Choi.
* And the Phil Mickelson-Jim Furyk pairing against Aaron Baddeley and Jason Day.
Surprisingly, Steve Stricker and Nick Watney have been left out of the USA lineup.
The four-ball pairings for this afternoon will be named after the foursomes are completed, with both teams again leaving out two representatives.
And tomorrow will feature all 12 in singles combat.
The Americans will be tough to beat despite being on foreign soil with four of them chalking up two wins from two – rookies Watson, and Simpson, with veterans Mickelson, and Furyk.
The Internationals boast just one double winner – KJ Choi – and he’s again been teamed with Adam Scott.
When they played together on the opening day foursomes, Choi and Scott crushed Woods and Stricker 7 and 6.
This time it’s Woods and Johnson.
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