United States retains Presidents Cup

“I said to Anirban that he may never have a putt that he’ll be that nervous over, but he hit a great putt”, said Price.

“I was much more emotional than if it would have been anyone else on the team, but no less proud”.

The darkness was getting so thick that Grace had no idea Oosthuizen’s second shot into the par-5 18th hole had gone into the water.

All the attention fell on the last match, with Bae holing a testing putt on the 16th to stay one down and performing similar heroics on the 17th where he almost found the cup from the bunker.

Haas was in the greenside sand but safely escaped to six feet, and when Bae could not hole his fourth, he conceded the match to the American. The United States of America will enter with the final 12-point session with a one-point lead, the closest it has been this late in the event since 2005.

But he endured agony as it lipped out, giving the U.S. an unexpected win at a pivotal moment.

Phil Mickelson is not one to play loose with the rules, but he is more than shrewd enough to take advantage of them when it suits his objective. Hideki Matsuyama won the 18th hole with a birdie to beat J.B. Holmes.

The USA players had been rubbing Mickelson’s belly for luck during the early foursomes but Bubba Watson should perhaps have rubbed a bit harder.

And American and world No. 1 Jordan Spieth won the first two holes against Marc Leishman and then fell into a tense match that turned in the Australian’s favor when he won the 14th and 15th holes.

Haas came into the final hole Sunday 1-up over Bae.

The biggest flip on the 18th, however, came in the Chris Kirk/Anirban Lahiri match. Leishman made his putt for par, and Watson missed the 5-foot birdie putt for the win.

“The nerves I’ve felt this week have been very different than any other golf tournament I’ve ever been in my entire life”, Kirk said.

A familiar face for the Americans was smack in the middle of the familiar outcome. He went 3-0-1 and made shot after shot like this one. “That’s why I hit that really bad chip over there (at the 18th)”.

The Champion Golfer of the Year duked it out with the PGA Championship victor for the 10th match. “We’re representing our country and we’re representing our teammates and we feel responsible when we don’t play our best, we feel accountable to others, not just ourselves”.

Branden Grace became the fifth player in the Presidents Cup to go 5-0, finishing off his week with a 2-and-1 victory against Matt Kuchar.

The United States beat the global team 15½-14½ to win the Presidents Cup for the sixth time in a row and ninth time in 11 contests. Prior to this year, the Americans had won the last five Cups by 95-75, with a victory margin of at least three points each time.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Victoria state will host the Presidents Cup in November 2019 and the next World Cup of golf in November 2016, it was announced in Incheon.

US captain Jay Haas made his son one of two wild-card selections, and he put him out in the last of 12 singles matches at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea against the local star, Bae Sang-moon, playing in his final event before he starts his mandatory military service in South Korea.

Golf’s elite players are pampered to the extreme, gifted with equipment and clothing, presented courtesy cars and meals, rewarded with huge sums of money for their success in a non-contact sport that they can excel at from the time they are teenagers until they are eligible for senior discounts.