Presidents Cup: Team USA struggles as Internationals win Saturday four-ball

The Internationals extended their lead over Tiger Woods and the Americans during Saturday morning’s four-ball matches at the Presidents Cup.

For the third consecutive day in Australia the Internationals dominated the Americans.

Entering Saturday’s morning (Friday night in North America) four-ball session with a 6½-3½ lead at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, the Internationals put the pressure on with another stellar day of play to extend their lead after winning the session 2-1-1. At the start of afternoon foursomes, the Internationals lead 9-5.

After earning two points alongside playing captain Tiger Woods in the first two days, Justin Thomas remained hot, earning a third point and the day’s first alongside Rickie Fowler, 3 and 2, over Haotong Li and Marc Leishman.

“That’s why we’re on this team,” Thomas said to Golf Channel in response to why the big moments bring out the best in his game. “That’s why we play, why we chose professional golf as our careers. We want that putt.”

Known as Captain America for his strong play in team events, Patrick Reed has yet to win a point for Team USA in this year’s competition, and has struggled in recent team events since earning the nickname. Reed and Webb Simpson dropped their third match of the event, losing to C.T. Pan and Hideki Matsuyama, 5 and 3. Pan and Matsuyama never trailed, and Simpson won the lone two holes for the Americans in the match.

When paired with Jordan Spieth in either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup, Reed is 8-1-3. He’s 0-7-0 with anyone else.

The MVP of the event thus far has undoubtedly been Abraham Ancer. The Presidents Cup rookie has dominated on the greens en route to a perfect 3-0 for Ernie Els and the Internationals, earning another win with a clutch putt alongside fellow rookie Sungjae Im, defeating Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, 3 and 2.

Just six holes were won in the final match of the morning between the Internationals’ Byeong-Hun An/Adam Scott and Americans’ Tony Finau/Matt Kuchar. Team USA held a brief three-hole 1 up advantage on the front nine, and a Kuchar missed putt from three feet on No. 15 gave the Internationals a late 1 up lead with three to play.

On the 17th hole, An made a 20-foot birdie putt, but Finau followed suit to take the match to the 18th hole, where he made birdie once again to earn the half point.

After the morning session, Woods and Els made their selections for the Day 3 afternoon foursomes matches, where Woods will be on the bench once again. You can catch all the action on Golf Channel from 3 p.m. ET Friday – 2 a.m. ET Saturday, and again on the replay from 2:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. ET Saturday on NBC.

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