Match 21 report: Stricker & Woods win 4 and 2

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Oct. 10, 2009
By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM Managing Editor

SAN FRANCISCO -- Here's an in-depth look at Saturday afternoon's Four-Ball match between the United States duo of Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods and the Internationals' Ryo Ishikawa and Y.E. Yang.

Match reports: Match 18 | Match 19 | Match 20 | Match 21 | Match 22 | Full scores

Match 21
Steve STRICKER/Tiger WOODS(USA) def.
Ryo ISHIKAWA/Y.E. YANG(Int'l), 4 and 2
tigerstrickcard1.jpg

Overview: Welcome to the Steve Stricker show. It doesn't happen often (ever?) that Tiger Woods stays in the passenger seat during a match, but after producing the heroics to win Saturday morning's Foursomes, Woods just went along for the ride as Stricker produced arguably the best performance by any player in a single match at Harding Park. Consequently, the U.S. duo remained perfect in winning their fourth match of the week, three of them in decisive fashion. The International duo of Ryo Ishikawa and Y.E. Yang, who entered the match having won their previous two since being paired by Captain Greg Norman, had no chance after going dormie, 6 down with six holes to play. Give them credit for extending the match, though, by winning the next three holes, thanks mostly to Ishikawa's putting, including a bomb of more than 37 feet at the 15th for birdie. But this match belonged to Stricker, who carded seven birdies in the first 12 holes, including four straight as the Americans went 4 up through eight holes. Stricker rolled in two birdies of longer than 31 feet, with two others longer than 12 feet. At one point, Stricker posted seven straight 3s on his scorecard. Woods, meanwhile, never posted a birdie. Of course, he didn't need to, as Woods and Stricker became the first tandem to win all four of their matches in a single Presidents Cup.

Key moment: With his team 1 up through five holes, Stricker faced a put of 31 feet, 9 inches for birdie. He drained it for his third birdie of the day -- and likely drained the energy out of the Asian duo, who never had a chance against Stricker's hot putter.

Quotes: "I helped out on ... three holes all day, 17, 18 this morning and then here. Otherwise I was cheerleading all day." -- Tiger Woods

"The putter obviously was my friend this afternoon. What (Woods) did this morning's round really made me want to do something and step up a little bit. And fortunately I was rolling it really well and giving myself lots of opportunities. We were looking at the putts and reading them and I was starting them on my line, so it was a good thing." -- Steve Stricker

"(Stricker) was a stud all day. He played so solid today, and not just this afternoon, but all day. He was consistent. He made a bunch of putts this afternoon but you don't realize how good he was driving it and how good he was hitting iron shots to give himself those putts. He was just pouring them in." -- Tiger Woods

Updated Presidents Cup player records: Steve Stricker (9-5-0 overall, 4-2-0 Four-Balls); Tiger Woods (17-11-1 overall, 5-7-0 Four-Balls); Ryo Ishikawa (2-2-0 overall, 1-1-0 Four-Balls); Y.E. Yang (2-1-1 overall, 1-1-0 Four-Balls).

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