ROBERT SMITH, Melbourne |Sunday 9.00pm.
The International team romped to victory Sunday in the Presidents Cup to lift the trophy for the first time, inflicting the heaviest defeat ever suffered by the star-studded US team.
In steady rain after two heatwave days, the Internationals drawn from all over the world except Europe powered home to win by a crushing 20-1/2 to 11-1/2 at Royal Melbourne.
The breakthrough came after two consecutive defeats in the competition, the last by just one point two years ago in the United States.
The Internationals’ win surpasses Europe’s five-point win over the US in the 1985 Ryder Cup at The Belfry, England, as the Americans’ biggest defeat in international competition.
In the inaugural Presidents Cup at Lake Manassas, Virginia, in 1994, the Americans smashed the Internationals by eight points, 20-12.
A combination of unfamiliarity with the Royal Melbourne course and the determination and preparation of the Internationals made it a deflating three days for Jack Nicklaus’s US team.
The Americans needed a miracle to win on Sunday. They entered the final day trailing by nine points and needing to win 11 of the 12 singles matches, but in the end they won four, lost four and halved four.
One significant win for the Americans was world number one Tiger Woods’ in his first competitive head-to-head showdown with former number one Greg Norman, winning one-up before a huge gallery.
Nick Price, the former British Open and US PGA champion, had the honour of clinching victory for the Internationals in his 2 and 1 win over world number three David Duval in the day’s second match.
The experienced Zimbabwean desperately wanted to wrap up the match at the 16th hole with his birdie putt but had a rush of blood and pushed it past.
But he secured victory at the next hole when Duval could not hole his birdie putt and Price only needed to put the ball close to the hole to end the American’s chances.
Other International singles winners were Japanese surprise packet Shigeki Maruyama, who finished the tournament winning all of his five matches, and triple world match play champion Ernie Els of South Africa.–AFP