2013 Presidents Cup: That’s a wrap and another loss
The Americans predictably win a fifth straight Presidents Cup 18.5 to 15.5.
Another two years and another Presidents Cup win for Team USA. Their power packed team contained 12 of the world’s top-30 golfers and they played accordingly. Despite a last day mini-charge from the Internationals, stunning iron play and putting from the Americans effectively put the result beyond any doubt late on Saturday evening.
As predicted the International team were simply outclassed losing by three points but the margin may not fully reflect the difference between the two teams.
As good as the Americans were, the Internationals only have themselves to blame for not making the final singles matches more meaningful.
Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen suffered a complete meltdown when the foursome matches were completed early on Sunday morning.
Leading by three with six holes to play, the South Africans looked half asleep in the early hours at Muirfield Village. They all but handed the trophy over to the US with two bogey’s and a double-bogey on the first three holes, losing the match to Brandt Snedeker and Webb Simpson, 1-down.
The early morning highlight went to Graham DeLaet who chipped-in from off the front of the 18th green to force Keegan Bradley to make a 10-foot putt to halve the match. He did so to break the International hearts.
To their credit, the International team regrouped for the final afternoon single matches. Ernie Els, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Marc Leishman, Graham DeLaet, Charl Schwartzel and Angel Cabrera all won their matches but it wasn’t enough to chase down the Americans who won 18.5 points to 15.5, the same final score as the previous Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.
By the numbers
4: Tiger Woods finished with the best record this week with 4 wins and 1 loss.
3.5: Jason Day and Graham DeLaet were the best for the Internationals winning 3.5 points for the team each.
0: South Africans Richard Sterne and Branden Grace were the only players win any points this week. Both finished with a 0 – 4 win-loss record.
1: Streaker at 2013 Presidents Cup.
The Aussies
The three Australians in the International team can hold their heads high despite the loss. Jason Day was superb all week. Adam Scott mentored Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama for each of his pairings but his highlight came on Sunday when he looked comfortable beating Bill Haas 2&1.
Marc Leishman proved a great captain’s pick for Nick Price and was probably unlucky to sit out one of the sessions on Saturday. His close out for the match on Saturday morning was sensational.
Quote of the week
This one came from Marc Leishman. Graham DeLaet tweeted that Leishman had made this comment to him over a post-match drink:
Quote of the night so far…. Leish, “how good is beer”
— Graham DeLaet (@GrahamDeLaet) October 6, 2013
What were the captain’s thinking?!
With victory to the USA looking likely, if there was one thing that would keep Australians up to watch the singles matches would be a few great match-up’s like Tiger Woods v Adam Scott or Ernie Els, or Jason Day v Phil Mickelson. Instead we got matches like Richard Sterne v Tiger Woods and Adam Scott v Bill Haas. Please.
To be fair, Marc Leishman’s match against Matt Kuchar was great but for creating much-needed hype for the Presidents Cup, these picks were a step backwards.
Shot of the week
The 2013 Presidents Cup will be remembered for the rain and the supreme shot making of the Americans. While there wasn’t the sort of variety of golf shots you would see at other courses such as Royal Melbourne or Kingston Heath, the American players kept coming up with answered every time they were questioned by the Internationals.
Graham DeLaet’s final day heroics around the 18th green were superb, and Marc Leishman’s approach shot to secure a point for the Internationals on Day 3 was incredible, the shot of the week must go to Zach Johnson’s hole-out for eagle on the 15th on Saturday.