Louis Oosthuizen drains 72-foot putt for birdie at Presidents Cup

Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace led off the scoring in Saturday’s foursomes at the Presidents Cup with a 3-and-2 victory over Rickie Fowler and Patrick Reed.

Zach Johnson and Phil Mickelson, who made news with their goofy celebratory handshake while dispatching Steven Bowditch and Jason Day 2 up in the opening round, turn their attention to Day and Adam Scott. That hole was halved, but it was a statement sent early that a US team of power and putting would be tough to beat.

Mickelson was reluctant to cast blame on the rules officials and said the responsibility lay with himself.

“Pricey had the idea to get us up in there because we had a good one yesterday and try to lead the whole team from the front”, said Grace. Haas rolled in a birdie putt on the 16th hole to cut the deficit to 1 down with two holes remaining, but Schwartzel won the match with a birdie on the 17th.

Officials disqualified Mickelson from the hole, a decision they later conceded was incorrect, but then added insult to injury by hitting the United States with a one-hole penalty.

Well, I was all ready to write up a post on Marc Leishman’s impressive birdie putt in the Friday fourballs at the Presidents Cup – but just as I began singing the praises of his gorgous 38-footer, Louis Oosthuizen drained a putt from nearly twice as far.

The captain’s decision to put Grace and Oosthuizen out first against the might of Spieth and Johnson proved a masterstroke. “The doc went to see him and he felt a lot better”. You know, I wish I could take more credit, but those guys went out and did it today, they really did. The lopsided nature of the competition had a few wondering about the event’s longevity, what with a few global stars reportedly on the fence about continuing to play this year.

After being benched for the opening day, Bae was a rock on Friday, carrying the erratic Lee throughout and sinking a match-winning 12-footer on the last to the delight of the home fans.