Americans to sleep easy after
'momentum shift' at Presidents Cup
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[December 13, 2019]
By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The United States
will rest easy and return to Royal Melbourne with all the momentum
after some 18th hole magic on the greens produced a "paradigm shift"
at the Presidents Cup on Friday, Patrick Cantlay said.
Tiger Woods's team trailed in all five foursomes matches early but
roared home to share the points on day two and hold the
Internationals to a 6.5-3.5 lead.
Cup debutant Cantlay set the fightback in motion when he drained a
14-foot birdie on the 18th to grab a point with Xander Schauffele.
Justin Thomas later rolled in another birdie putt from 17 feet on
the last to claim victory with Woods, before Rickie Fowler secured a
half-point for the Americans with a clutch five-foot putt for par,
also on the 18th.
Until that giddy final hour, the United States had been "getting
beat up" all day, said Cantlay.
"I looked up on the board and we were down in almost all the matches
all day. Being able to flip the whole deal, we're going to go to bed
tonight feeling great and we're going to have the
momentum going into tomorrow," he added.
"We are still down but there are a lot of points up on the board for
tomorrow ... I really thought this afternoon was huge and I think
it's going to be a big paradigm shift going forward."
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The United States have won the last seven Presidents Cups, but have
not trailed after day two in the biennial event since 2005.
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Saturday, with four morning fourball matches and four foursomes
matches in the afternoon, will have eight points up for grabs and
could prove decisive.
The Americans will have to attack the morning without their playing
captain Woods, who has elected to sit out of the fourballs after
winning both his matches with Thomas.
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Thomas will instead team up with Fowler, while Woods has decided to
persist with the pairing of fiery Texan Patrick Reed and Webb
Simpson after they slumped to a second successive defeat.
Reed has been heckled by spectators throughout the event after
Internationals players criticized him for a controversial bunker
penalty in the Bahamas last week where he was docked two strokes for
improving his lie.
Woods said Reed and Simpson had handled the reception "extremely
well".
"Unfortunately they just haven't won points. But they have done all
the little things right," added the skipper.
"It's just a matter of having things go your way, and that's part of
playing these team sessions."
(Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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