Tiger hauls his ailing team with him at Presidents Cup

Tiger Woods’ week has had two opposing themes.

As a player, he’s been brilliant; so good that you can see him winning more majors in 2020, even at 44 years of age. As Presidents Cup captain on debut, he’s facing one of the most embarrassing defeats of his career with a talent-laden team, and he’s raging against it with all the competitive cussedness that he can gather at Royal Melbourne.

Remember, the United States team of 12 does not include a single player outside the top 24 in the world rankings. The International team has just three inside that mark – Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen and Hideki Matsuyama – and their highest-ranked player is Scott at No.18.

But as it stands, the relatively-young Internationals are threatening to win the Presidents Cup for the first time since 1998, still three points ahead after the second day.

It is a potential defeat at Royal Melbourne that would burn the famously-competitive psyche of Woods, just the second playing captain in Cup history.

Today, he played in the match of the day alongside Justin Thomas, the world No.4, against Matsuyama and Byeong Hun An of South Korea. The crowds were enormous around his group, for it would be impossible to underestimate how excited the people are to see arguably the greatest-ever golfer playing back in Melbourne for the first time since 2011.

Shane Warne was following the group, and at every hole there would be a shout of: “Bowled, Shane”. At the fifth, after Woods set up a birdie for Thomas, someone up in the grandstand yelled out: “The real King,” as Warne strolled past.

The combination of Woods and Thomas was mostly emblematic of the Americans so far this week. Woods hit shot-after-shot of purity, and Thomas could not go with him until the death.

On Thursday, Thomas admitted to being “carried’’ in their four-ball win over the International pair of Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann. In four-ball play, where each player hits his own ball and only the low score goes on the card, this is manageable. In foursomes, where they play just one ball and alternate, it is not.

Woods hit gorgeous, spinning wedges at No.3 and No.5, the two famous par-threes, and at No.6 where Thomas missed from short range and the match turned in the Internationals’ favour. Thomas put him in a dreadful spot on the par-four 10th, up high on the hill with no angle at the flag. Woods dragged the team out of it with his second shot to the green from a sandy lie.

The greatest irony of the day came at the 18th, with the match all square and Thomas flaring an awful tee shot into the right rough to continue his difficulties. Woods rescued the Americans with a great second shot from 140 metres, out of the rough and straight over the flag, stopping just more than five metres beyond the hole. It should not have surprised anyone; he had six birdies on Thursday and on Friday, he hardly missed a shot all day.

Thomas, who’d offered up virtually nothing for 17 holes, rolled in the right-to-left birdie putt for the win. It might have been the turning point. “It gives me absolute shivers, man,” said Woods.

Thomas screamed at Woods and Woods screamed back. Afterward, Thomas said he’d channelled Terrell Owens, the NFL legend, with his words: “I love me some me.” He’d shown his teammates a Youtube clip of Owens on the bus this morning. “It's a 10-second video but it's just 'TO' being 'TO' and it's really funny.”

The American captain is unbeaten in two matches this week with Thomas. He’s virtually dragged the USA into a position that, while not good, is redeemable.

It could have been much worse for the Americans, who at one point were behind in all five matches. They could easily have lost the lot, but Patrick Cantlay made a great birdie to win his match alongside Xander Schauffele over Adam Hadwin and Niemann, Thomas made a putt when he most needed it, again at 18, and Sungjae Im of the Internationals missed a makeable birdie putt to win the final match alongside Cameron Smith, the Australian who made a promising debut. That match was halved.

Woods has been the best player of the 24 out here but he has some serious thinking to do in his captaincy role. One of his talismen, Dustin Johnson, came in off a knee injury and has gone 0-2. Patrick Reed, who came in with distractions, is also 0-2. Reed heard so much chirping from the crowd today that he mimicked a digging action at one point, but he has not played particularly well for a man with such a great reputation in team golf.

Hanging by a thread, the Americans at least know they have one of the greatest driving them. For two whole days, we have all been given a gentle reminder of that.