Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson rally to keep U.S. ahead at Presidents Cup
INCHEON CITY, Korea — By winning the last two holes, world No. 1 Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson rallied to defeat world No. 2 Jason Day and Charl Schwartzel 1 up in the anchor match of Foursomes on Saturday to keep the U.S. ahead in the Presidents Cup at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea.
Spieth and Johnson, who were 3 down at the turn, made birdie on the 17th when Spieth made a 10-footer and par on the last when Spieth canned from 7 feet to secure a much-needed point for the Americans, who at one time were down in three matches and all square in another.
The Americans were helped when Schwartzel left the team's second shot in the bunker on the par-5 18th hole, the ball smashing into the lip. Day came up short with his 25-footer for par and Spieth claimed victory a minute later.
The win in the last morning match gave the teams a split in the session and kept the U.S. ahead of the Internationals at 7½-6½.
"Your blood is running through your head, it's running through your hands. You know it's there," Spieth said of the last putt. "I have a great trigger that I picked up … on those putts that I normally kind of push out to the right where I can really stay down through the ball; and just looking at the spot just in front of the ball allows me to get over the tension in my hand and make a nice, solid stroke over that point. … But man, what a comeback we had there. That was a great fight. And it was a huge point in the Presidents Cup."
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Bubba Watson missed a 6-foot putt for birdie for the win on the 18th hole as he and J.B. Holmes finished all square against Adam Scott and Marc Leishman instead of moving to 3-0 as a team.
"We definitely had our opportunities," Holmes said. " … It was disappointing I guess the way it ended. We felt like we played well enough to win, but they played really well. And every time we got up a couple, they battled back and threw in a birdie. It was a great match."
The U.S. lost another chance to secure a full points when Bill Haas and Matt Kuchar finished all square to Sangmoon Bae and Hideki Matsuyama, who won the last hole with a birdie.
The South African armada of Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace moved to 3-0 in the competition with a solid 3-and-2 victory over Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler.
"I'm a very positive guy, I like cheering him up," Grace said of his partner. "I'll give him a smile every now and then. Just try to get the mood up, and we've been playing nicely and hopefully we can have a good one this afternoon."
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The pairings for the afternoon Fourballs were made before the morning matches were completed. Because of a one-hour delay due to storms, the Fourballs matches will likely not finish before sunset, forcing resumption Sunday morning before singles action.
Holmes and Watson will go off first against Oosthuizen and Grace.
In the second match, Phil Mickelson will team with Zach Johnson for a third time against Scott and Anirban Lahiri.
The third match has Jimmy Walker and Chris Kirk for the Americans against Bae and Matsuyama. The anchor match has Reed and Spieth reuniting to face Day and Schwartzel. Reed and Spieth went 2-0-1 in the 2014 Ryder Cup.
Sitting out for the Americans are Haas, Kuchar, Fowler and Dustin Johnson. Sitting for the Internationals are Thongchai Jaidee, Danny Lee, Leishman and Steven Bowditch.
