Match 2 report: Els & Scott win 2 and 1

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Here's an in-depth look at Thursday's Foursomes match between the Internationals' Ernie Els and Adam Scott and the United States duo of Hunter Mahan and Sean O'Hair.

Match reports: Match 1 | Match 2 | Match 3 | Match 4 | Match 5 | Match 6 | Full scoreboard

Match 2

Ernie ELS/Adam SCOTT (Int'l) def. Hunter MAHAN/Sean O'HAIR (USA), 2 and 1

Overview: Adam Scott, who has missed the cut in 10 of 19 PGA TOUR starts this year, came in as the controversial pick of International Captain Greg Norman, but he and teammate Ernie Els justified the selection with a solid, if not exactly spectacular, win to give their team its first point of the day. The International pair never trailed after winning the third hole with a par, and they closed out the match with two consecutive birdies. The American duo of Presidents Cup rookie Sean O'Hair and Captain's Pick Hunter Mahan posted three bogeys in the first four holes and could never get untracked, hitting just seven of 13 fairways and needing 31 putts in 17 holes. While Scott was generally solid from tee to green -- his opening drive that found the fairway had to calm the nerves -- he struggled on the greens. Fortunately, Els saved him by making several longish par putts.

Key moment: With the Internationals 1 up after 15 holes, Scott stuck his approach shot on the par-4 16th to within 1-1/2 feet for a conceded birdie that gave his team the lead, 2-up. A hole later, Scott made a birdie putt from 4 feet, 5 inches to close out the match.

Quotes: "Any victory is important, but personally for me obviously it feels great. But more importantly we need it for the team because things were looking good early on, but some matches were turning around and we really needed this one." -- Adam Scott

"I missed a lot of birdie putts. (Adam) hit it so good today. I had so many birdie looks, but I couldn't quite make the putts. If I make putts it could have been over long ago, probably should have been over three or four holes ago but we had to make some par-saving putts. I had a great partner and obviously a great pick." -- Ernie Els

Updated Presidents Cup player records: Ernie Els (14-10-2 overall, 5-5-1 Foursomes); Adam Scott (8-6-2 overall, 4-2-1 Foursomes); Hunter Mahan (2-4-0 overall, 2-1-0 Foursomes); Sean O'Hair (0-1-0 overall, 0-1-0 Foursomes).