The United States have maintained their one-point buffer over the Internationals at the Presidents Cup on Friday. Play was shortened at Muirfield Village due to darkness in Dublin, Ohio, with the two finished foursomes being split 1-1. Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley combined to beat Jason Day and Graham DeLaet 4 and 3, before Ernie Els and Brendon de Jonge hit back to win by the same scoreline over Bill Haas and Hunter Mahan. The scoreboard reads 4.5 to 3.5 in favour of the hosts and Cup holders, with the Internationals needing 17.5 points to win back the trophy. The remaining foursomes on Friday are set to be split evenly, as both sides lead two of the four unfinished matches. Americans Steve Stricker and young gun Jordan Spieth are three-up through 14 holes on Brandon Grace and Richard Sterne, while Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar are also three-up through 12 on Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel. Australia&aposs Adam Scott and Japan&aposs Hideki Matsuyama are four-up through 11 on Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson, while Angel Cabrera and Marc Leishman hold a narrow one-up lead through 13 on Webb Simpson and Brandt Snedeker. Mickelson and Bradley were imposing in their battle with Day and DeLaet, turning a one-up Internationals lead through four into a six-up lead through 12 for the hosts. A late rally from Day and DeLaet reduced the damage for the Internationals but it was too late to salvage half a point. Els and De Jonge took a one-up lead on the second hole of their clash with Haas and Mahan and did not look back, extending it to three-up through five and eventually sealing the point for the Internationals with three holes to spare. The Cabrera-Leishman and Simpson-Snedeker clash was the closest battle on the day, with the largest lead of the match-up – two-up to the Internationals – lasting just one hole before the Americans pulled it back to a one-shot deficit when bad light stopped play. Woods and Kuchar have dominated against South Africans Oosthuizen and Schwartzel, leading from the first hole, and picking up shots on the sixth, ninth and 12th. Stricker and Spieth are on the verge of wrapping up a point for the Americans, having led from the third hole onwards and merely needing to negotiate two more halved holes for the victory. Scott and Matsuyama have built a commanding lead in their match-up with Dufner and Johnson, picking up shots on two, five, six, eight and 11 to be three halved holes from securing the Internationals a point. After the foursomes are settled on Saturday, there will be five four-ball and five foursome matches prior to Sunday&aposs finale of 12 singles battles.
Author: Omnisport