US take lead; Lahiri-Thongchai lose their match

Incheon (South Korea), October 8

The United States took a 4-1 lead over the International team on the opening day's foursome matches in the Presidents Cup golf tournament here today.

In the past 10 editions of the tournament, the Internationals have won the title only once, tying on one occasion. It is going to be very tough for them to make a comeback from this 1-4 deficit.

The first pair of the Internationals, India's Anirban Lahiri and Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, lost their match 5&4 to a sizzling Rickie Fowler and consistent Jimmy Walker. This pushed the Internationals on the back foot, and they failed to recover the lost ground through the day. The Internationals posted their only win of the day when the South African duo of Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen took out Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed 3&2.

In the other matches, Bubba Watson and JB Holmes beat Adam Scott and a badly out-of-form Hideki Matsuyama 3&2, while the star pairing of Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson convincingly rode over Danny Lee and Marc Leishman 3&2.

Lahiri and Matsuyama will sit out for Friday's fourball matches, while the Americans will keep their only losing duo, Reed and Kuchar, out and bring in Bill Haas and Chris Kirk.

With a huge crowd thronging the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club for the first-ever Presidents Cup in Asia, only one match went to the wire, getting decided on the 18th hole. Veteran Phil Mickelson holed from the bunker once and then held his nerve as he and Zach Johnson beat Jason Day and Steve Bowditch 2-up on the 18th. Day had stretched the match to the 18th with a long birdie putt on the 17th, but other than that he seemed a little flat.

Internationals skipper Nick Price said his team were down but not out. “For us, it's a difficult format because there are very few people who know each other well, you know what I'm saying,” he said. “Thongchai and Anirban predominately play the European Tour; Louis and Charl play there a little bit, as does Branden. But you're still a little limited as to who you can put with who. Also, there's a little bit of a language barrier.”

“I'm certainly not despondent about the whole thing. We are not in the situation we'd like to be after the first round, but there's an awful lot of golf to play," he said. “And to be honest, I think this team is going to bounce back a lot quicker than maybe any of the other teams we've had.”

Rookies Lahiri and Jaidee struggled through the day and barely made a putt. “We didn't make a single birdie in 14 holes, and we hit 13 fairways,” he said. “I mean, we only missed one fairway on 10 and we hit every fairway apart from that but did not make a birdie. So that tells you that we didn't putt well, and that's what you need.”

Jaidee, though being a rookie, is the oldest player in the International team. He said, "Rickie putted so well. He holed (from) everywhere. In this format you have to putt well. You can't miss anything. We had a lot of mistakes today with the putter."

Lahiri echoed this view, saying: "I think both Thongchai and me were nowhere close to our best.”

On Fowler, Lahiri said, "He putted great all day. If I'm not mistaken, he must have made about six or seven one-putts today, and none of them were inside of 10 feet."

Lahiri, who was rooting for the other pairs, added, "I was out there rooting for my teammates. That is the spirit in which we play this week. Unfortunately I didn't play my best today, and hopefully I come up with my A game whenever I'm asked to."

“The US team played really well today,” Price said. “There were a lot of birdies made out there. Hit a lot of great shots, made a lot of putts. So a tough day for us. (But) We still have another 25 points left out there.” — PTI

Results:

Foursomes: (First named winners): Watson/ Holmes (U.S.) bt Scott/ Matsuyama (International), 3&2 Oosthuizen/ Grace (Int'l) bt Kuchar/ Reed, 3&2 Fowler/ Walker (U.S.) bt Lahiri/Thongchai, 5&4 Mickelson/Z Johnson (U.S.) b Day/ Bowditch, 2-up Spieth/D Johnson (U.S.) bt Lee/ Leishman, 4&3