Verdi's Views: Versatile, veteran U.S. squad takes control

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Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Steve Stricker, right, earned his first point Saturday and will anchor the U.S. in Sunday singles.

Bob Verdi, one of the most respected sports writers in the United States, is on site at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia filing stories for PGATOUR.COM to give fans an inside look at the competition, teams, players and captains, as well as the unique setting of the Sand Belt courses in Victoria.

Verdi joined the Chicago Tribune in 1967 covering hockey and baseball. He gradually moved his expertise and skills as a columnist into golf and wrote full-time for the newspaper through 1997. He joined Golf Digest and Golf World as a senior writer in 1997. Currently, Verdi is a member of the Chicago Blackhawks' front office, serving as team historian.

Verdi has covered all eight previous Presidents Cup, including those in Australia (1998), South Africa (2003) and Canada (2007). Verdi will rely on his decades-long relationships with many of the players -- as well as team Captains Greg Norman and Fred Couples -- to focus on the players and personalities of The Presidents Cup and present stories from the event in his individual and iconic style.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Things are looking up for the Americans.

After four sessions of matches and four seasons of weather at Royal Melbourne, they lead the Presidents Cup by four points. Also, for the first time in a the last two years of team golf competition, their rain gear works, actually rejecting water instead of accepting it. What a concept. That untimely wardrobe malfunction of 2010 Ryder Cup infamy has been rectified.

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Click here to access the archive page of Bob Verdi columns from Royal Melbourne.

With a healthy 13-9 advantage entering Sunday's singles, the Americans are in position to leave this magnificent country with champagne on their breath instead of egg on their faces, as was the case when the Internationals romped in 1998.

This time around, despite their show of spirit in Saturday's afternoon (and evening) fourballs, Jim Furyk and Nick Watney secured a crucial point in the gloaming over the much decorated duo of Ernie Els and Adam Scott, the final act of a marathon that commenced at 7 in the morning. You lose a day when flying from the United States to Australia, but Saturday's program, while entertaining, was so protracted, it felt as though you got that entire day back without going through customs again, boarding another airplane and awaiting your bag of peanuts en route to Los Angeles.

Come Sunday, we shall be spared the drama as to whether Steve Williams will shake the hand that fed him. That happened already. Besides, Tiger Woods is to be opposed by Aaron Baddeley while Scott will face Phil Mickelson. The Americans require only 4-1/2 points of 12 to retain the Presidents Cup, and their captain, Fred Couples, backloaded his lineup with experience just in case. Furyk, who is undefeated and can beat anybody, anywhere, will take on Els in the No. 9 match, followed by David Toms vs. Robert Allenby. After Woods and Baddeley, Steve Stricker meets Y. E. Yang in the anchor duel.

As an aside, Couples volunteered that his batting order will afford veterans a little extra sleep, even though the singles do not begin until 10:30 a.m. Young Webb Simpson, who probably does not require extensive rest, will open for the Americans, as he has all week. His fellow early bird, hyperactive Bubba Watson, will go third against Ryo Ishikawa. What Bubba might do with all that spare and idle time is anybody's guess. There's always Sandringham, a public course just across the street, where the nine-hole rate is quite reasonable. Greg Norman, Couples' counterpart, seconded the notion. His guys are tired too.

"But I'm proud of them and we know our backs are against the wall," said The Shark, who was not compelled to stage any water bottle demonstrations Saturday.

On Friday, when the broiled putting surfaces threatened to turn from green to black without pausing for brown, Norman showed tourists the essence of his beloved Royal Melbourne. After taking a drink, he poured a splash of H 2 0 on a green. One assumed the moisture would instantly sink in, but Norman knew otherwise. The water beaded up, as if on the hood of a freshly waxed automobile, and ran sideways.

If only Norman could have induced his Internationals to effect such miracles in foursomes, the format whereby playing partners strike alternate shots. The Americans have snared 8 of their 13 points in this regimen, presumably because they must encounter it every year, like it or not. The Internationals, alas, do not play in the Ryder Cup. Geoff Ogilvy, the cerebral Aussie, considers this a significant disadvantage for his side and he is not alone. Norman mentioned the "comfort level" of being familiar with the format and how lack of same "has been our downfall."

In a stark revision of history here, the Americans marked the halfway juncture by collecting 11 of the first 17 points through three sessions by around noon Saturday. Couples, availed the luxury of sitting Mickelson (3-0) for the afternoon, did just that after consulting the left-hander. Some 13 years ago, the Yanks departed for home Monday morning chagrined, having amassed only 11-1/2 points total, their worst team loss since their professional league sanctioned uniforms.

Only 32 points were on the table then, not 34, but the Americans weren't going to catch the Internationals without bringing in the Marines. It was so gruesome that Lee Janzen of the vanquished guests remarked, "well, we can still whip them in baseball." Not so fast. What if you sent the Chicago Cubs to Australia?

Unlike 1998, the Americans have been men for all seasons thus far. They achieved a 4-2 lead in foursomes Thursday, when the atmosphere was temperate. Norman, attentive to forecasts, suggested the scores and highlights might be different Friday, which produced sauna conditions on schedule, and a steamy northwest wind. Blasts from due north are deemed the ultimate salutes to summer around here, but Friday's were so angry, even the bugs took cover. Local knowledge mattered little, however, and the Americans retained their two-point advantage. On a parboiled Friday in 1998, the opening day of the competition, the Americans melted.

Saturday brought rain that rendered greens slightly more accommodating. A number of players actually made par on the short No. 3, which could qualify as Royal Melbourne's signature hole if there weren't so many candidates. In the afternoon, with a cool front moving in on a freshening breeze, Matt Kuchar and Stricker each crafted birdies where, a day earlier, neither Scott nor Mickelson could locate the green after three swings each. Kuchar and Stricker lost, however, and the Internationals won the front three games after lunch.

But the Americans proved to be good mudders. It always rains on the PGA TOUR, right? Hunter Mahan's putt clinched one point, then Furyk-Watney survived a couple of Scott's attempts that could have salvaged a halve. That didn't deter his partial yet polite fan club in Aussie colors and knee socks from chanting, "We Love You Scotty, Oh Yes We Do!"

His mates will return Sunday, rain or shine, or some combination thereof.