The President's Cup Match play golf competition continues Friday outside Washington with the International team leading the United States by one point (3.5 to 2.5). The two teams face off in four-ball competition with both captains acknowledging the competition is far from over.
The U.S. Team is only one point behind the Internationals, even though the visitors seem to have momentum going into Friday's four-ball competition.
In this part of the competition all four players hit shots, so four balls are in play at once. The player who scores the best on a hole wins that hole for his team. If players have the same score, the hole is halved.
International Captain Gary Player has teamed U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell of New Zealand with Argentina's Angel Cabrera for the first match against 2004 Masters champion Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco. Player says that he knows a one-point lead is nothing to feel comfortable about.
"Being up one point is irrelevant. It is like being in a mile race and you are out in 50 yards ahead. There is such a long way to go. I mean one point is absolutely nothing," he said. "I mean this is as close as it can be - other than a tie or a half a point. So it is very, very close, and very exciting which is what both Jack and I want to see happen."
U.S Team Captain Jack Nicklaus has a question about Jim Furyk's Ability to play with Tiger Woods in the last match of the day. Furyk is nursing a rib injury suffered last week, and the pair is scheduled to play Aussies Stuart Appleby and Mark Hensby.
Nicklaus says that he is confident his team can succeed even if Furyk is injured.
"I think the spirit of the matches are that we want everyone to play," he said. "I think Gary [Player] and I feel that way. Jim [Furyk] would like to play. I don't think there is any question about that. And Tiger [Woods] said to me 'Hey, he will be all right, he will play.' So we will see. I just do not know."
If Furyk starts and cannot finish, Woods would compete against both Internationals. If Furyk cannot start, Woods would play a singles match against a player from the International team.
Other matches have Vijay Singh of Fiji and South Africa's Tim Clark taking on Americans Fred Funk and Stewart Cink. Davis Love III and Kenny Perry look to overcome Thursday's loss when they take on Peter Lonard and Nick O'Hern of Australia.
Retief Goosen of South Africa stays with Australian partner Adam Scott to take on Fred Couples and David Toms of the United States. Americans Justin Leonard and Scott Verplank face Canada's Mike Weir and South Africa's Trevor Immelman.
There are both foursomes and four-ball matches Saturday and 12 singles matches on Sunday. The two teams currently share the Cup. A team needs 17.5 points to win it.
