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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

MONTREAL -- Tiger Woods couldn't resist.

Tiger Woods (right) and Charles Howell III closed out their match with a birdie on the 17th hole. (WIreImage)

When someone asked him what it felt like to have opened up a commanding 5 ½ - ½ lead after Thursday's opening Foursomes at The Presidents Cup, Woods had this wide-eyed and playfully innocent look on his handsome face.

"We've been on this side in the last two Ryder Cups," Woods said, pausing for effect, before finishing his thought. "Oh ... it's the European side," he grinned.

Woods' self-deprecating humor aside, the Americans played with ardor and abandon Thursday -- not unlike their European counterparts seem to do in alternate years -- and produced their most lopsided lead since a 5-0 start in 2000.

The U.S. Team went on to beat the Internationals 21 ½- 10 ½ that year at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, but no one expects a similar shellacking. There are 28 points remaining to be claimed and two star-studded rosters ready to divvy them up over the next three days at Royal Montreal.

"We're a long ways away from the end of this thing, there are so many points available," said Woods, who was a 3-and-1 winner with Charles Howell over K.J. Choi and Nick O'Hern. "Second session tomorrow, you know they are going to come out with some of their best pairings and top guys out early and try to turn this thing around."

Given Thursday's outcome, that's an uphill battle. Still, the paper that said the International Team -- with nine of the top 20 players in the world -- was the favorite might as well be in the shredder as the Americans made a statement on Thursday.

"Needless to say, if you would say if this is what I expected the results to be, I would say no," U.S. Captain Jack Nicklaus said. "But am I happy with them? Absolutely I'm happy with them. Our guys played well. They played well down the stretch.

"Time after time, they just did what they were supposed to do ... Could have gone either way. There's a lot of golf to be played. We've got a full four day tournament in front of us, a four round tournament in front of us, so a lot of things can happen."

Nick O'Hern (pictured) and K.J. Choi were one-over after five holes. (WireImage)

The matches were tight and spirited, but in each case the U.S. hung tough. Phil Mickelson and Woody Austin may have been the poster boys for that determination as they won four of their final seven holes to halve with Vijay Singh and Mike Weir.

Austin -- one of four American rookies whose play Nicklaus termed "terrific" -- made pivotal putt after pivotal putt, including the 15-footer for par at the 18th hole that assured the Americans of the halve. Then the U.S. Team conceded the 4-footer that the big Fijian faced to avoid what would have been a total wipeout for the Internationals.

"I think Phil and Woody made the right decision," Nicklaus, who had his hand in it as well, said. "They both felt that Mike had played a good match and Mike being a Canadian and being here, that it was the right thing to do."

Steve Stricker and Hunter Mahan got things rolling, winning the first hole and never trailing in a 3-and-2 victory over Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy. More red followed on the leaderboard, and by the time Tiger Woods and Charles Howell III teed off in the day's finale, the U.S. led in three matches and momentum was clearly on the Americans' side.

"One of the things I say, every time you ask us about the difference between the Ryder Cup, why we keep losing all the sessions, if you look at it, the Europeans are up early, and up early in the match," Woods said.

"And in this format, there's only 18 holes. It's so hard to come back from a 2 or 3 down deficit, especially this caliber of players. It's really hard to turn that around. If you look at all of our matches out early, they were all up.

"It's amazing how the guys towards the end tend to feed off of that and hopefully tomorrow we can go out there and do the same thing and put a bunch of red up there early and keep the momentum that we built today into tomorrow."

As the pressure mounted down the stretch, seven balls -- neither team was exempt -- found a watery grave, including Rory Sabbatini's drive at the 18th hole when he and Trevor Immelman were square in their match with Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson.

JIm Furyk (left) and David Toms. Furyk scored his 11th career win in Presidents Cup competition. (WIreImage)

Stuart Appleby, down 1 standing in the 17th fairway, airmailed his approach over the green, behind a fence and into a stand of trees. While Player called it simply a "bad shot we all hit," he questioned some of his team's decisions under the gun.

"We've seen a lot of majors, we've seen a lot of majors in the last few years lost on the last hole by a lot of players, by the incorrect decision; i.e., Phil Mickelson at the U.S. Open, and ... Van de Velde lost on the last hole with a three shot lead taking a driver instead of taking an iron off the tee," Player said. And you have a split decision to make it. ...

"Coming down the last hole, Rory has the honor, he's long on the tee and he can reach the bunker on the right and now you've got the water. That's a driver, you mustn't go with a driver; you've got to go with a 3 wood because you can aim it at the trap and not hit it and hit one club more into the green and it makes a massive difference. It makes the fairway a lot wider if you go that way.

"And I spoke to him afterwards, and I don't like to interfere with my player's play at all. We've never interfered and he agreed. He said, "It was in my mind and I just made the wrong decision.'"

Still, Friday offers a chance for redemption, and Scott said the International Team was frustrated, but not defeated by Thursday's events.

"I don't think it was so much down," the young Aussie said. "It was (ticked) off is more the word. If anything, it's got people pretty fired up for tomorrow. ... There's stuff to sort out and a job to be done.

"If anyone was dragging their chin on the ground in there, was told to pick it up quick and look forward to tomorrow."