U.S. and International teams split the points

The Americans were up in five of the six matches at some point on the back nine but the Internationals rallied to split the day at 3 points each.

Woods and Stricker again dominated,this time in the four-balls format,to finish among the first after teeing-up last in a 5 and 3 victory.Phil Mickelson proved he’s back to his best level after winning The Tour Championship,he scored his second consecutive point at the Presidents Cup this time with Justin Leonard as his partner. The INT’l don’t have an answer yet for the three best players in the world,Woods and Stricker are the only players who haven’t trailed in their matches and they are still to play the 16th hole in competition.

PGA Champion Y.E Yang (Korea) and 18-year old Ryo Ishikawa (Japan),the first all-Asian pairing since 1998,stunned the Americans with a relativaly easy victory (4 and 3) against the more experienced Kenny Perry/Sean O’Hair. “ He’s young,but he definitly doesn’t play young”said Yang “I told him on the first tee that we should have fun,and we did have fun.And we had a win,as well.”

However it was the pairings Els/Weir and Singh/Clark that would keep things close late on Friday. Mike Weir and Ernie Els won the final three holes for a 2 up victory,Weir hit a fantastic second shot on the par 5 18th for an eagle that was conceded “That was one of the better ones I’ve hit in a long time”said Weir.Tim Clark closed the match against Glover/Cink by rolling a 15-foot putt for eagle and go 1 up on 18th. “It certainly didn’t look good there for a while” Clark said “When you come out of a day like that tied -and obviously,only one point back now- we are feeling pretty good..”

Mike Weir and Tim Clark have volunteered to take on Woods/Stricker on Saturday morning in the alternate-shot session (foursomes).

The star U.S. pairing only played 14 holes in Thursday’s Foursomes and could have won even faster on Friday before stalling on the back nine after they built a 3-up lead at the turn.Woods and Stricker feel very comfortable together,it is the first time Tiger has won his two opening matches in his 12 years playing the Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup.

The International Team is only one point behind going into Saturday’s matches,five Foursomes in the morning and five Four-Balls in the afternoon.Captain Greg Norman is happy with the results and the overall performance of his players.The Americans have to be a little disappointed with their minimum lead as they were poised to be well ahead after the first two days of competition. Plenty of golf left this weekend,can the INT’l keep it close today?

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