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By Dave Shedloski
PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent

MONTREAL -- It was one of the most astounding matches in Presidents Cup history, one played so well, with so much poetry and pathos. It was a match with so many sweet swings and so many swings in momentum, with so many clutch shots and so few holes halved, that in the end, without question, everybody agreed that it was truly fit to be tied.

Phil Mickelson and Woody Austin and excelled in a format in which it is difficult to excel. (Halleran/WireImage)

Americans Phil Mickelson and Woody Austin staged a dramatic rally over the closing holes in their foursomes match against Vijay Singh and native son Mike Weir Thursday at Royal Montreal Golf Club, and then extended a hand of concession to ensure that a hotly contested golf exhibition ended without a loser. The par putt that Singh sized up on the 18th hole was nearly four feet, but Mickelson and Austin, prompted by captain Jack Nicklaus, decided that he didn't need to putt out.

"There shouldn't have been a winner or a loser," Mickelson said after the tie that provided the International Team with its only source of scoring on the first day of the seventh Presidents Cup that the U.S. dominated on the way to a remarkable 5 1/2 to 1/2 lead. "Both sides played very good golf."

Both sides played exceptional golf in a format -- alternate shot -- that is the most difficult in which to excel. But all four men had their moments to shine on a wet, cool and overcast afternoon, and all had a chance to stand in the warmth of an outcome that was hard-earned, deserved and redeeming for all. The four players combined for eight birdies. They halved only six holes while each side won six. There were chip-ins, tap-ins, and, finally, a love-in.

Nicklaus, who has taken the high road of unrestrained sportsmanship so often that he could find it in the dark walking backwards, once again recognized the difference between scoring a point and making a point. After Austin rammed home a 13-foot par putt on the home hole to ensure the half-point for America, he sidled up to his charges and broached the subject of conceding the par to the International Team.

"And they jumped right on it," Nicklaus said. "They deserve the credit. Given the circumstances, it was the right thing to do."

Those circumstances included the level of play and the fact that the match, the second of six on the day, involved Weir, who was shouldering enormous pressure playing in front of his fellow Canadians.

"I think, more than anything," said Nicklaus, famous for his concession to Tony Jacklin in the 1969 Ryder Cup that resulted in the first tie in that biennial competition, "it sets the tone for the spirit of the matches, which is always of utmost importance."

"That was well done there," Ian Baker-Finch, the assistant captain of the International Team, said.

Well done, indeed, which was congruent with the level of play, starting from the first hole when Austin, a rookie at age 43, sank a 30-foot birdie putt. When the International duo bogeyed the third after Weir missed the green, the crowd was silent and Mickelson and Austin were both pumping fists.

It wasn't long before they felt like they needed their stomachs pumped.

The International pair went on a tear by winning five of seven holes starting at the long par-4 fifth hole to turn the 2-down tally into a 3-up lead. Weir was the catalyst. After a shaky start, his wedge from 110 yards at the par-5 sixth set up a kick-in birdie for Singh that leveled the match. He then drained a 16-foot birdie at No. 8 for the lead. Another laser at the 11th from 186 yards stopped four feet away for yet another Singh birdie, and combined with a U.S. bogey at the ninth, it appeared as if the home crowd was going to be dispersed early.

Not so fast, said the Americans.

Austin sank a must-have 25-foot birdie at the par-5 12th to cut into the deficit. "We needed to get something going," Mickelson said. "That really jump-started us."

After the Internationals bogeyed 13, Mickelson took his turn by setting up Austin with an easy three-footer for birdie at 14. Three straight U.S. wins and back to all-square.

And there was still more fireworks to come.

"They put a lot of pressure on us," Weir, a wild-card pick by Captain Gary Player, said. "It was a great match. That was probably, in the four Cups I've played in, the toughest match; back and fourth, they got ahead and then we stormed back and then they stormed back, and it was just seesaw."

The par-4 15th hole featured see and saw. Mickelson's 5-iron covered the flagstick and checked up 12 feet behind the hole. Weir dumped his approach into the left bunker. Advantage U.S. Then Singh scooped it out and watched it roll in for birdie. Advantage Internationals. A shocked Austin couldn't convert.

But he gathered himself and nailed a 13-foot par save at 16 to remain within one. Mickelson then got his putter into the act by holing a 20-foot birdie on the par-3 17th to square the match one more time after Weir just missed birdie from off the front of the green. As soon as Mickelson's ball disappeared, Austin raced excitedly to the cup and plucked it out for his partner.

That set up all the dramatics at 18 and that's when the pressure manifested in poor swings. Both Austin and Singh missed the green. Mickelson splashed out of the bunker to 13 feet. Weir chipped to just under four feet. Austin proved he was up to the task one more time.

"The back nine he hit some of the greatest shots ... some of the best shots in the clutch you'll see," Mickelson said of his partner.

Countered Austin, modestly: "I just rode my Clydesdale all day. It felt good to have things go our way there at the end."

It went their way, and then they ended it their way. And it was the right way.