Presidents Cup

Jack Nicklaus, who will be captain of the U.S. team for the Presidents Cup one last time, selected Fred Couples and Justin Leonard to fill out his lineup yesterday, while international captain Gary Player took Peter Lonard of Australia and Trevor Immelman of South Africa. The Presidents Cup will be played Sept. 22-25 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in northern Virginia. The 10 players who qualified for the U.S. team earned their way on Sunday, before the PGA Championship was over.

GEORGE, South Africa - The International team took a one-point lead over the United States yesterday after the first day of the Presidents Cup. Of the six alternate-shot matches, the International team won three and tied another to hold a 3 1/2-to-2 1/2 lead heading into today's best-ball play on the Links at Fancourt. A team needs 17 1/2 points to win. The U.S. team's first point came from Davis Love III and Kenny Perry, who beat Australian Peter Lonard and South African Tim Clark, 4 and 2. Americans Tiger Woods and Charles Howell III had the day's most lopsided win, 4 and 3. Zimbabwe's Nick Price and Canada's Mike Weir won the opening match, 1 up, over David Toms and Phil Mickelson.

As skies darkened, Tiger Woods stood over a 4-foot putt that was more about pride than a measly half-point in the Presidents Cup. Just holes earlier, he missed a crucial putt from the same distance. And in the morning, he had endured his biggest loss in team competition. "I don't know if I could have lived that down if I missed that one," Woods said. Not to worry. Woods buried the putt for a 1-up victory with Charles Howell III, the seventh win out of 10 matches for the Americans yesterday.

GEORGE, South Africa - The International team swept all six better-ball matches yesterday to take a three-point lead over the United States with one day left at the Presidents Cup. The international team, made up of golfers from outside the United States and Europe, leads the competition at the Links at Fancourt, 12 1/2-9 1/2. A team needs 17 1/2 out of 34 points to win the Presidents Cup. The defending champion Americans have won the event,...

THE WINNING point for Tiger Woods. A perfect record for Jim Furyk. And validation for U.S. captain Fred Couples. The Americans won the Presidents Cup as a team, 19-15, yesterday on Australia's Royal Melbourne. Yet even as they gathered around the gold trophy at the closing ceremony yesterday afternoon, all of them dressed in red shirts and blue blazers, it was hard to ignore the singular achievements. Couples was criticized in some corners for picking Woods, who had fallen out of the top 50 for the first time in 15 years and had gone 2 years without winning.

The United States won enough singles matches yesterday in Montreal to win the Presidents Cup for the second consecutive time. The U.S. outpointed the International team, 19 1/2-14 1/2. That didn't stop the relentless cheers that rocked Royal Montreal on a spectacular autumn day, especially when Canadian hero Mike Weir won the final two holes to beat Tiger Woods. Weir won the Masters 4 years ago, and he wasn't sure which felt sweeter. "It's right there with it," Weir said. "Obviously, winning the Masters was such a thrill, but to play Tiger . . . he's the best player there is, and I had to play my absolute best today to beat him. " For the Americans, it was another victory for their beloved captain, Jack Nicklaus, who now is 2-1-1 in the Presidents Cup. For the Americans, Scott Verplank completed a 4-0 week with birdies on the 16th and 17th to beat Rory Sabbatini, 2 and 1, and Phil Mickelson hammered Vijay Singh, closing him out on the 14th hole.

If you needed more proof that the Presidents Cup is a kinder, gentler competition than the Ryder Cup, it was there at yesterday's news conference to announce the pairings. Why did Gary Player, captain of the International squad, choose to pair his top stud, Vijay Singh, with Mark Hensby, the rising star from Australia, in today's alternate-shot match against the United States' Fred Funk and Jim Furyk? Is it because Singh is a long bomber who struggles with his putter while Hensby is shorter off the tee but a better putter?

Careers are mostly about taking steps. West Chester's Sean O'Hair is about to take the next one in his progression as one of the best under-30 players on the PGA Tour. The 2005 Rookie of the Year is on the 12-man American team that will take on the rest of the World (minus Europe) in the biennial Presidents Cup matches starting tomorrow at Harding Park, a municipal course in San Francisco. He's the only member of the U.S. squad who has never played in one of these. He was in position to get to his first Ryder Cup a year ago but didn't.

Presidents Cup host nation Canada learned yesterday that its biggest star will compete. Former Masters champion Mike Weir was picked as a wild card for the International team, ending months of speculation whether captain Gary Player would take someone who was 20th in the Presidents Cup standings and had not won in 3 years. His other selection was Nick O'Hern, the only player to have beaten Tiger Woods twice in match play. U.S. captain Jack Nicklaus used his two picks on two promising young players who have never played in any cup - Lucas Glover and Hunter Mahan, who has not finished out of the top 25 all summer.

MELBOURNE, Australia - The Americans returned Down Under and wound up on top in the Presidents Cup. Perhaps it was only fitting that Tiger Woods clinched the cup for the second straight time. U.S. captain Fred Couples was criticized for using a pick on Woods, who had been out with an injury most of the summer and hasn't won since his personal life crumbled two years ago. Woods played well all week, even if he didn't always get rewarded with a point. In his singles match against Aaron Baddeley, he was never seriously challenged.

THE WINNING point for Tiger Woods. A perfect record for Jim Furyk. And validation for U.S. captain Fred Couples. The Americans won the Presidents Cup as a team, 19-15, yesterday on Australia's Royal Melbourne. Yet even as they gathered around the gold trophy at the closing ceremony yesterday afternoon, all of them dressed in red shirts and blue blazers, it was hard to ignore the singular achievements. Couples was criticized in some corners for picking Woods, who had fallen out of the top 50 for the first time in 15 years and had gone 2 years without winning.

MELBOURNE, Australia - Adam Scott took a 4-up lead over Phil Mickelson in their singles match Sunday at the Presidents Cup - without having to putt on the first three holes. Mickelson hit his opening tee shot into rough, bladed his second under the spectator stands, and conceded after missing his par putt. On the par-5 second, he was in a greenside bunker in two, but took 2 shots to get out and gave Scott his two-footer for birdie. On the par-3 third, Mickelson's tee shot was short and in a gully.

IT WAS A successful day for the U.S. team at the Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia. Not so for Tiger Woods. Adam Scott and K.J. Choi were relentless yesterday at Royal Melbourne in dishing out the worst loss for Woods in any format of match play. The International tandem defeated Woods and Steve Stricker, 7 and 6, tying the record for biggest margin of victory in Presidents Cup history. Woods and Stricker, undefeated 2 years ago, turned out to be the only negative for the Americans.

U.S. Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples made it official, choosing Tiger Woods as one of his two picks for the team that will play an International team Nov. 18-20 in Melbourne, Australia. Couples also selected Bill Haas , winner of the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup, to round out his 12-man team. International captain Greg Norman chose a pair of Australians, Robert Allenby and Aaron Baddeley , to compete for his team at the Presidents Cup. Couples had previously announced he would select the 50th-ranked Woods, the 14-time major winner who struggled with injuries this year and who has not won any title since November of 2009 and the eruption of his infamous sex scandal.

ADAM SCOTT IS playing well enough to win the Tour Championship. If he gets some help, he could win a lot more. Scott birdied his last two holes yesterday for a 5-under 65 to emerge from a packed leaderboard and take a one-shot lead over K.J. Choi going into the weekend at East Lake in Atlanta. Scott won the Tour Championship in 2006, the last year when he only had to keep track of the leaderboard. He is No. 19 in the FedEx Cup, making him a longshot to capture the $10 million bonus.

U.S. team captain Fred Couples wants Tiger Woods on the Presidents Cup team, provided Woods plays tournaments before he shows up at the Australian Open a week before the matches. "He can't just show up the week before in Australia," Couples said Wednesday at the Senior Players Championship. "I have made it clear that whoever I picked will be playing the Australian tournament the week before. But I need him to play more than just there. " Woods missed the cut at the PGA Championship and failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.

KOHLER, Wis. - Last week could have been Sean O'Hair's week. Maybe it should have been. His fourth PGA Tour victory, and third in 3 years, appeared to be less than a round away. He shot 64 on Saturday to become the co-leader after 54 holes of the Bridgestone Invitational. Not a major, but still one of the next-best things. And early on the final day, he was ahead by two shots. But it wasn't happening. The 28-year-old West Chester resident would close with a 1-over-par 71 to finish fifth, four behind his friend Hunter Mahan.

You could excuse Sean O'Hair for being distracted during last year's U.S. Open at Bethpage Black on Long Island. His wife, Jackie, was ready to go into labor at any minute with the couple's third child, and O'Hair was waiting for the call. A son, Grady Quinn, at least waited until June 23, a little more than 24 hours after his dad tied for 23d at the Open. So there was no need for a high-speed dash down the New Jersey Turnpike. Interestingly, there will be some similarity this year when O'Hair tees off at next week's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Dave Huntley was relieved Wednesday of his duties as general manager and head coach of the Philadelphia Wings. The National Lacrosse League team also released assistant coaches Chris Sanderson and John Tucker. Wings owner and president Russ Cline called the decision to dismiss Huntley "a very difficult one for the ownership group. No one has worked harder or been more loyal than Dave and his staff. " Huntley was hired as head coach in 2008 and added the general manager duties before the 2010 season.