USA maintain five point lead

On a day of two spirited comebacks, Tiger Woods, Kirk Triplett and the rest of the Americans saved their best golf for the toughest format this afternoon, and the Presidents Cup was right back where it started.

Hours after getting blindsided by the International team in the four-ball format, the Americans restored their five-point lead with a birdie blitz to win four of the five foursomes (alternate shot) matches and move closer to reclaiming the cup.

"Each team, when they have the onus on them, they seem to come back and play well,'' Woods said.

Woods and Notah Begay, routed in the morning, won the first six holes against the slumping star pairing of Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Triplett continued to hole one big putt after another as he and fellow rookie Stewart Cink won a crucial point late in the day.

Almost everyone else followed suit with a birdie binge unheard of for alternate shot.

• Triplett and Cink, trailing by one with six holes to play, birdied the next three and were 6-under par in a 2-and-1 victory over Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby.

• Loren Roberts and Paul Azinger, captain Ken Venturi's wild-card selections, birdied five of their last six holes in a 5-and-4 victory over Carlos Franco and Shigeki Maruyama. It was the Japanese star's first loss in seven Presidents Cup matches.

• Hal Sutton and Tom Lehman, both losers in the morning, birdied five of the first seven holes and never came close to a bogey in their 3-and-2 victory over Michael Campbell and Retief Goosen.

"All I know is that our team is great in foursomes,'' Cink said. "Our team has gelled.''

The Americans said they could play as a team, and their alternate-shot matches certainly support that. In two sessions, their record is 9-1.

"I can't explain that,'' International captain Peter Thomson said. "I saw some amazing golf by the U.S. team.''

The five-time British Open champion was never fond of the format, and today's turnaround didn't do much to change his opinion.

"It's for old ladies in golf clubs,'' he said. "The sooner we can get rid of it, the better.''

The only match that prevented another clean sweep in foursomes was Phil Mickelson and David Duval, who managed just one birdie and were beaten 5 and 4 by Nick Price and Mike Weir. Duval never made it to the 15th tee in two matches today.

Not to worry.

The Americans' 10-5 lead was their largest ever in three Presidents Cup matches at RTJ, and they went on to win the other two.

The International players, in a state of shock as they left the course in fading sunlight, were down and possibly out. Five best-ball matches follow Saturday, their best chance to try one again to cut into the lead before the final round of singles.

It can only hope for the same results Friday morning.

Trailing 5-0 after the opening session Thursday, the International team made short work of such a big deficit. It won the first four best-ball matches in the morning, none of them reaching the 18th hole.

The biggest rout came from Price and Greg Norman, who never lost a hole in their 6-and-5 victory over Duval and Jim Furyk. Norman was particularly sharp, making three straight putts of at least 10 feet to halve the hole.

The biggest shock came from Franco, so uptight about being paired against Woods that he had a hard time sleeping. It didn't show, as he made seven birdies in teaming with Maruyama for a 3-and-2 victory over Woods and Begay.

Thomson watched from the fairway with a gleam in his eye.

"A better contest today,'' he said.

It might have been made possible by a rare speech from Els on the bus back to their hotel Thursday night. With a beer in hand, he reminded his team how far around the world they had traveled and to pull together.

"It was a nice Ernie Els speech, and he's too big to argue with,'' Norman said.

Thomson concurred.

"He said, 'I feel we're going to win if we all play hard and play with our heart.' Everybody gave him a rousing cheer,'' Thomson said. "And then we all had another beer.''

Els could have used a stiff drink after today.

He and Singh, the highest ranked players for the International team, have been thumped in all three of their matches. Two of them were against Woods-Begay, and the other loss came this morning in best ball against Love and Mickelson.

"They've had all the hard matches," Thomson said.

Still, they have never led in any match, and were at least 3 down at the turn in all of them. This afternoon was even more crushing.

Singh, who appears to have lost his putting touch since winning The Masters, missed a 5-foot birdie putt that would have halved the first hole, and missed another from the same distance that would have won the eighth hole. His next tee shot on the par-3 ninth went into the water.

Woods went straight to the practice range after his morning loss, and apparently fixed whatever was wrong. He made a 15-foot birdie putt on the second hole, and gave Begay a 12-foot eagle putt on the fifth.

"I felt a lot better this afternoon,'' Woods said. "We got rolling early.''

That was all the Americans needed, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

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