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You're free to watch football
By Gary Van Sickle, Sports Illustrated Consider yourselves free to watch National Football League games on Sunday afternoon, folks, because the Presidents Cup is virtually over. The Americans won four-of-five four-ball matches Saturday afternoon to open a 14-6 lead going into Sunday's 12 singles matches. It would take the greatest comeback -- or perhaps the most gigantic gag job ever -- for the International team to overtake the U.S. Not even Ben Crenshaw, the man behind last year's Ryder Cup rally, could pull off a biggie-sized miracle like this. The Americans need just two wins and a tie in the 12 singles matches to clinch the Presidents Cup for the third time in four tries and avenge their drubbing two years ago in Australia. The only question left for Sunday is whether it's going to a crushing, a blowout or a minor rout. "It's going to be a long day if this is over in the first three groups, which I wouldn't mind, anyway," U.S. captain Ken Venturi said. "All my guys are thinking the same way." Toward that end, Venturi front-loaded his Sunday lineup to end the suspense early. Paul Azinger, who asked to bat leadoff, will play the opener against Robert Allenby. Also among the first seven players are David Duval, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love, Tom Lehman and Tiger Woods. The rout is on because several of the top International players, notably Vijay Singh and Ernie Els, are a little off their games while Robert Allenby, Nick Price and Carlos Franco have struggled with their putting. Mike Weir and Retief Goosen have probably played as well as anyone on the team. Meanwhile, maybe it didn't really matter because the Americans have played lights-out, truly inspired golf, and they've done it even though Woods and Notah Begay are only 2-2. The groundwork for this U.S. birdie-fest may have come that memorable Sunday at the Ryder Cup. Seven of the U.S. players were on that squad. "We gelled as a team during the course of that Ryder Cup but from day one that we got here," said Hal Sutton, "we were a team and we were going to play like a team."
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