American Stars Earn Their Stripes

SAN FRANCISCO -- If there are three iron-clad certainties in golf, you have to figure close behind the balls having dimples and Tiger Woods having it all, comes the United States having its way in the Presidents Cup.

The Internationals came, they played, they got thumped.

Once more, without a lot of feeling.

Any drama a cold, gloomy-gray Sunday at Harding Park Golf Club hoped to generate, could not possibly have vanished any quicker.

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Beginning the final round with a three-point lead, the Americans needed five wins out of the day's 12 singles matches to improve their record against the Internationals to 6-1-1. So the Yanks won the first five matches to be completed and left NBC with 1½ hours of drama-less vacuum to fill on the way to a 19½-14½ finish.

At least Woods had the decency to be the one to provide the clinching point, earned with a 6 and 5 thrashing of Y.E. Yang. Woods produced five birdies over 13 holes, which, fortunately, demanded plenty of replays and discussion.

Yang, in case you need reminding, was the guy who won the PGA Championship in August, ending Woods' streak of 14 consecutive major championship wins when he held the 54-hole lead. Be assured, Woods had not forgotten.

"Well, you know, he got me once, and hopefully, I can get him a second time," Woods said. "I actually played pretty good."
The same will not be said about Greg Norman making his pairing.

What in taxidermist hell was Shark thinking?

Needing an early and quick strike to cut into the American's final-day lead, Norman made what stands as the week's most dubious decision.

To get the action stated, he turned to Camilo Villegas and Adam Scott, a combined 1-6 for the tournament, and inarguably the two International players who had struggled most.

Hunter Mahan took down Villegas 2 and 1 in the opening match, and Stewart Cink swamped Scott 4 and 3 in the second.

"I thought when they put me out first I need to set the tone," Mahan said. "I didn't want to get the match off to a loss and luckily Stewart played great, so that was two right there."

In short order, Anthony Kim followed with a 5 and 3 win over Robert Allenby and Sean O'Hair beat Ernie Els 6 and 4 before Woods made it official.

"Yeah, probably fitting," International Mike Weir acknowledged of the winning putt.

Everything about the week seemed to fit the Americans.

Woods went 5-0, the first time in 11 national team appearances he finished better than 3-2. Phil Mickelson, still feeling the rush of his Tour Championship win two weeks ago, was 4-0-1, including a 2 and 1 win against Retief Goosen. Steve Stricker finished 4-1, undefeated when partnering with Woods, although a 2 and 1 victim to Geoff Ogilvy on Sunday.

America's stars earned their stripes.

"I think when you get one or two guys really teaming together like Woods and Stricker did, you're going to get points," Norman said. "Woods won all five matches. That's huge.

"But that's what you expect out of your No. 1 player in the world. You need him to step up to the plate and sometimes he hasn't done that. This time he did."

The results were magic. American captain Fred Couples, known throughout his career for a laid-back, worry-about-it-tomorrow approach to pretty much everything, suddenly became a calculating tactician.

"We were talking earlier about how impressed we were with the job that he did," Mickelson said. "He just seemed to be on top of everything. Every detail, which isn't, you know, his personality. He was on top of who he wanted to match up, how he wanted them to play."

Yeah, Fred Couples, also known as, Mr. Attention To Detail.

"I mean, Jesus, with Tiger Woods you put red shirts on Sunday," Couples responded. "I like tan and white, so we wore that one day. I like gray, we did that. I don't know what the detail is."

What Couples did was brilliant by its simplicity. He saddled up his lead horse and rode hard.

"It was a fun thing to have Tiger and Steve beat up on everybody because I wanted Tiger to win every match, and I thought that was important to our team," Couples said. "Now, obviously, Phil wants to win every match. Sean O'Hair wants to win every match.

"But every tournament Tiger plays, everyone wants to know what he's shooting and where he's at. The Presidents Cup is no different. We basically shut their team down from saying, 'Hey, we have them where we want them.' He won every time and I think that was a big boost to us."

No doubt, a certainty.