Closing in fast
International team steamrolling toward victory
Posted: Saturday December 12, 1998 02:59 AM
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Tiger's troubles: "They're playing great golf -- holing all their shots, up-and-downs everywhere, and making so many birdie runs that it's hard to stop them" AP |
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- No, this Presidents Cup isn't a war. The United States is hardly even putting up a fight.
With another stunning 18th-hole birdie and more perfection from one of its least known players, the International team all but clinched its first Presidents Cup on Saturday at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
At the end of a day in which the wind switched to the south and dropped afternoon temperatures by about 20 degrees, the one constant was the remarkable -- the Americans might call it unbelievable -- play of the International team.
After winning 4 1/2 of a possible five points in the morning alternate-shot matches, including one on a 50-foot chip-in for birdie on the 18th hole by Australian Craig Parry, the International team held off any U.S. hopes for a comeback to build a lead that is virtually insurmountable.
The International team is up 14 1/2-5 1/2, and needs to win only two of the 12 singles matches Sunday.
"We haven't got it yet, but we're looking good," said Greg Norman, 3-0-1 in four matches with fellow Aussie Steve Elkington.
The United States, needing to mount some semblance of a charge in the afternoon best-ball matches, watched its hopes fall apart on the closing holes.
Norman, the man most responsible for moving the matches out of the United States after two appearances at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia, made a 15-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole to give himself and Elkington the lead over Fred Couples and Davis Love III.
They closed out the final match at 2-up when Norman knocked down the flag at the 17th and the Americans, typical of their entire day, couldn't make a birdie putt.
Tiger Woods and John Huston made a spirited comeback from 4-down after six holes and 2-down with three holes to play when Woods made birdie putts of 4 and 30 feet. But Ernie Els won the match 1-up with a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th, and Huston's 10-footer to halve never had a chance.
"I'm very disappointed," Woods said. "They are just doing the right things at the right time. It's frustrating. I don't know what else we could have done. This is what match play is all about."
But who would have figured this?
David Duval, the leading money-winner on the PGA Tour and perhaps the most dominant player in the world, is 0-3-1, while Shigeki Maruyama of Japan hasn't lost yet.
Maruyama, paired with Joe Ozaki in a best-ball match against Duval and Mickelson, closed out the match with three straight birdies for a 3 and 2 victory.
Japan's mighty mite also came up big in the morning, holing a 35-foot birdie putt to bring the alternate-shot match even against Woods and Couples, then watching with delight as Parry, his partner, pulled off another last-hole shocker.
One day after Frank Nobilo's thunderous 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th green gave the International team a jump start, Parry found himself in about the same position, needing to get up and down to halve the match.
Instead, he rammed in the 50-foot chip for a 1-up victory that swung the tide in the International's favor.
"It's unbelievable what they did," Couples said. "The 35-footer on 17, and then 18 was just plain goofy."
And yet, the International team was doing it all day -- Norman's chip-in for birdie from 75 feet on the third hole of the best-ball match after Couples hit it stiff for a shoo-in birdie; and Nobilo with two more putts over 30 feet and two shorter ones that helped he and Greg Turner beat Love and Justin Leonard in the morning alternate-shot match.
"They're playing great golf -- holing all their shots, up-and-downs everywhere, and making so many birdie runs that it's hard to stop them," Woods said.
Both captains, Jack Nicklaus and Peter Thomson, had said throughout the week that these matches would not turn into the war-like mentality that has marked the Ryder Cup over the past 10 years.
No need to worry about that.
After two days and 20 matches, this is what the United States -- described by Thomson in opening ceremonies as the "greatest collection of players in the world" -- has to show for it: four matches won outright, and a futile search for an answer.
"I've seen a whole lot of putts made from the International team," Leonard said. "That's really the only thing I can point to."
Mark Calcavecchia and Lee Janzen, who rallied from 3-down with five holes left to earn a draw against Norman and Elkington in the morning, won 3 and 2 over Nick Price and Carlos Franco to win the first point of the afternoon.
Masters and British Open champion Mark O'Meara, who sat out the alternate-shot matches, came through with Scott Hoch in finally beating Nobilo and Turner, the two captain's picks from New Zealand.
O'Meara made a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th for a 1-up lead, then could only hope the Kiwis didn't have another heroic 18th-hole birdie in their bag. Turner had a 40-foot birdie putt to halve the match, but it curled around the cup.
"It's disappointing," O'Meara said. "Everyone is giving 100 percent, but the International team is just putting better."
In this kind of event, putting is what usually wins a cup. The United States found that out at Valderrama and Oak Hill in the Ryder Cup. And is on the verge of getting yet another reminder Sunday.
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