Presidents cup: USA win in final-hole thriller

They had early leads in nine matches.

Nevertheless, an absolutely brilliant day’s golf on Sunday kicked off with a stylish win for Adam Scott over the more-fancied Rickie Fowler, and while Phil Mickelson dispatched a disappointing Charl Schwartzel 5&4, Oosthuizen’s sensational eagle at the 18th hole to burgle a half against the unpopular Pat Reed was box office stuff.

When Hideki Matsuyama birdied his final hole to defeat J.B. Holmes he had narrowed the gap to just one. Kirk made his birdie putt, and Lahiri’s putt caught the right lip and spun out. After a Watson bogey on the 17th, a match that looked like a sure fire American point suddenly was all square. He was magical with short irons in his hands with three hole-outs from around the green and another from a fairway bunker. Lefty rewarded Captain Haas’ faith in him by playing incredibly well all week.

“Honestly, it’s what you want”, Haas said, via The Golf Channel. “I can feel my game starting to turn”. The overall score was tied at 14 1/2 points. If we keep getting weeks like this, then we’ll see the players fighting to make room for them, instead of worrying about removing it from the calendar. 15, I handed it to him, but the other holes that were won were won because one of us won the hole. Johnson was 5 up through 11 holes when Day tried to rally.

Zach Johnson, United States, def. Jason Day, International, 3 and 2. The No. 2 player in the world gave away two holes with bogeys, and then hooked his approach into the water on No. 7 trying to lay up. Spieth did not play well all week, but he looked to be turning his fortunes around on Sunday when he jumped out to a quick 2 Up lead on Leishman.

Jay Haas fought back tears after his son took the winning point. “I wasn’t expecting to beat Jordan. So I think that’s what really helps”. “But I don’t know that you can put a value on what he means to the players and the demeanor he brings into the team room”.

Each session, from Friday afternoon through to the end of the tournament, finished with only one point separating the teams.

In this edition of After Further Review, our writers weigh in on Nick Price’s Presidents Cup tweaks, Bill Haas’ emotional moment with his dad and the fallout from the first Presidents Cup in Asia.

The Americans got the winning point from Bill Haas, the son of USA captain Bill Haas, who won 2-up over an emotionally distraught Bae Sang-moon.

Trailing by one on the 18th, Bae had to win the hole to tie – but he mishit his hard third shot into the green on the par-5, and the ball almost rolled all the way back to his feet.

Three things we learned about the Presidents Cup.

“I thought, ‘That’s 20 years ago.’ And Bill was there watching me play”, Haas said. “Your mom deserves this”. “When we put [Bill] out 12th, we had no idea that was going to happen”. But he played attractive down the stretch. Couldn’t even have dreamt this. “I’m just so proud of my team”.

“No”, he said. “It just needs to be competitive”. “People say I drove it, maybe I spearheaded it, but the support that these guys, and what they all felt about this competition, this has certainly been a huge step in the right direction”. South African Branden Grace led the worldwide team with a flawless record of five wins-only the fifth player in competition history to achieve the feat.