American's On the Brink Of Another President's Cup

NFL News - October 11th, 2009 - Written by John

Coming into Sunday morning, the Americans have broken the President's Cup open with a three-point lead on the International team.

Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker, however, continued their dominance and are now 4-0, and the American's lead 12 1/2-9 1/2. The pair is the first team to go to 4-0 in any foursome match since the 1979 Ryder Cup and the Americans only need five more to end the match.

Leading into Saturday, the Americans had looked good, but were seemingly unable to put away opponents, allowing the competition to come back and only had a one-point lead. After looking dominant, the American had just a 6 1/2 to 5 1/2 point advantage over the International team.

But just after 10:45am EST, the first groups went off the tees, it would have appeared as though the Americans were determined to close it out.

In match 13, Phil Mickelson/Sean O'Hair vs Retief Goosen/Camilo Villegas, the International team would get an early lead on hole 3, but it was not meant to be. On 4, the match was squared up, before the Americans would take the lead on hole 5. Things would square up again at hole 7, but after that it was all Americans. The duo of Mickelson and O'Hair never trailed Goosen and Villegas again, and would win the match 5 and 3.

Mickelson and O'Hair were favored at -140 to win this match, compared to the +110 Goosen and Villegas were getting.

Match 14 paired up Justin Leonard and Jim Furyk going against the pair of Ernie Els and Adam Scott. The International team would command the match first, but would be unable to pull away. As soon as the Internationals led, the Americans brought the match back to square on the next hole. After a lead by the Americans, and then being square again, the Americans pulled away on hole 10, eventually winning 4 and 2.

Once again, the American pair, Leonard and Furyk were favored at -125, but oddsmakers had Els and Scott at -105, not far behind.

Match 15 would be a match that the Americans would lead quickly, but would not be able to hold. Stewart Cink and Hunter Mahan got out to a good start against Robert Allenby and Vijay Singh, but couldn't hold it, and eventually found themselves trailing most of the match. After getting it back to square, the International squad would hold the lead from hole 5 through 17, but like the Americans, couldn't close it out. The match was halved after the conclusion of hole 18.

Neither team won this one, so the bet was a push, however had Allenby and Singh held on, bettors would have won -110. Oddsmakers at Online Sportsbooks deemed this match to be the closest of the day and were right.

Tiger Woods, World's #1 Golfer, along with Steve Stricker lead the Americans into Match 16 against Mike Weir and Tim Clark. As one would expect, the Americans would get the lead, however it wouldn't last after the second hole. The International team would quick square up, and eventually take a 2 hole lead. Woods and Stricker would battle, getting it down to 1, on hole 17. Stricker and Woods won 17, and 18, squaring the match, and then winning 1 up.

This match was the biggest mismatch according to the oddsmakers. For 17 holes, it looked like the oddsmakers were wrong, but in the end, they would be right. Had Weir and Clark pulled through, bettors would have won +210. For the win, Woods/Stricker bettors earned -240 on the payout.

The last match of the morning, Match 16, featured Kenny Perry and Zach Johnson against the tandem of Ryo Ishikawa and Y.E. Yang. It was never meant to be for the Americans, as they would get down twice early on. After squaring the match on hole 4, the International team never looked back. Ishikawa and Yang won the match 3 and 2.

For their win, Yang and Ishikawa won bettors a payout of +110.

All payouts listed above came from DSI Sportsbook, one of our best sites for PGA Betting.

Once play from afternoon Four Ball is completed, the picture should be much clearer. No matter what happens, each team will have a chance on Sunday, with 12 individual matches, and 12 points being awarded.

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