The U.S. team has defeated the Internationals 18 ½ to 15 ½ to take the Presidents Cup golf competition outside Washington. The competition came down to the last group on the last hole.
The teams started the day tied at 11 points each, and the U.S team took the first two matches. Justin Leonard defeated Tim Clark 4-and-3 and David Toms - who collapsed last week from a heart problem but wanted to play this week - beat Trevor Immelman of South Africa 2-and-1.
Retief Goosen defeated world number one Tiger Woods of the United States, 2-and-1 while Kenny Perry downed Mark Hensby of Australia, 4-and-3.
Fred Couples rolled in a putt on the 18th hole to beat Vijay Singh, 2-and-1. Couples, 45, is one of the oldest players on the U.S. team, said after the match that he has a lot of respect for Singh.
"It was a great match and he hit the ball extremely well," said Mr. Couples. "And I got it around. And you know to hole that putt in front of everyone - I did the same thing - I don't know how many years ago against him on the old number 17 [hole] so it was great match and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it."
Canada's Mike Weir downed American Scott Verplank, but American Jim Furyk defeated Adam Scott of Australia by the same score.
Peter Lonard of Australia beat American Stewart Cink, 3-and-2 while U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell of New Zealand defeated American Fred Funk, 3-and-2.
Davis Love the Third of the United States defeated Nick O'Hern of Australia 4-and-3 to take the U.S. team to 17 points.
Former Masters Champion Phil Mickelson of the United States was on the first playoff hole with Angel Cabrera of Argentina when Chris DiMarco birdied the 18th hole in the group behind them to beat Stuart Appleby of Australia 1 up. That gave Team USA the win and DiMarco says that Appelby gave him all he could handle.
"Stuart is a true competitor and he absolutely brought the best out of me and I am glad he did it," he said. "We - I tell you what - we birdied between us, I think we had four of five birdies in the last seven holes between us. So it was a lot of good golf."
This is the U.S. team's first major international team win since it took the Presidents Cup in 2000 also at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. The U.S team has never lost a Presidents Cup competition at the Virginia venue. The next Presidents Cup competition is at The Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada in two years.
