Lee hoping for Presidents Cup support

U.S. captain Jay Haas saved Spieth and Johnson for the anchor match of foursomes Thursday when the Presidents Cup begins at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea.

The only bright spot for the Internationals was the South African pairing of Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen, who defeated Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed 3&2 to put a touch of blue on a red-hued scoreboard.

That opener featured five foursomes matches, which is the alternate shot format that the Internationals have historically struggled with and put them in deep holes early in the weekend. We chip and putt pretty good.

“Jordan and Dustin, they have been wanting this for a while, wanting this pairing”.

With a slender one-hole lead on 18 and Jason Day already safely in the fairway, Mickelson capped a stirring performance by launching an adrenalin-filled 350-yard drive down the par-five to leave Johnson just 186 yards from the pin. It’s an enormous and important start for the Internationals, who have the Korean home crowd favorites in Danny Lee and Sangmoon Bae going off second.

World number one Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson were similarly clinical in disposing of Danny Lee and Marc Leishman 4&3, back-to-back birdies on the opening two holes giving them a lead they never surrendered.

Day’s eagle try sat on the lip, but even that wasn’t enough for the Americans to need to putt and the concession ensured the late rally proved ultimately fruitless in a 2-down loss.

“We have known each other since childhood, playing and competing against each other at junior tournaments and becoming friends away from the golf course over the past 40 years or so”, the former world number one said recently.

Both times, the team that won the first session of foursomes won it big and won the Cup by a lot.

Price has an worldwide team that is the youngest ever despite the 45-year-old Thongchai. “There’s still, as I say, a long way to go.’ Just to keep their chins up and do the best they can”.

He said: “This is wonderful, the guys played really really well”.

“Hit great tee shots, great irons, and then the key was making putts”. “So I don’t think that anybody’s getting too giddy”.

“It’s hard to make these teams”, Zach Johnson said.

America is seeking a sixth-straight win over the Internationals in the teams event and have the dominant team on paper once again.

“They bring a vast amount of matchplay experience and knowledge to the global team, and this year they are more determined than ever to come out on the winning side”, he said.

TEAM BONDING: global captain Nick Price is finding out what previous captains have tried to deal with at the Presidents Cup – how to pull a team together from nations all over the world except European countries and the United States.