Deficit down to one for America
Jack Nicklaus had cause for concern Friday in the Presidents Cup.
His best player – Tiger Woods – walked the fairway with a bag of ice pressed against his back. What Nicklaus figured would be his best tandem was getting hammered again. And as he stood on the ninth tee and gazed at the scoreboard, the Americans were ahead in only one of the six matches.
“When that last group went through, if you gave me 3-3, I would have given you 10-1 (odds),” Nicklaus said. “I would have been very, very pleased. As the afternoon went on, I was kind of disappointed it ended up 3-3.”
Indeed, it was a strange and stormy afternoon at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va.
The push in six better-ball matches belied the changes in momentum, and a stark difference in a crowd that revved up their cheers for the U.S. team and went silent when the International team pulled off its share of great shots.
When it was over, the International team kept its one-point lead – 6 1/2 -5 1/2 – heading into a pivotal round today of 10 matches, followed by 12 singles matches Sunday.
PGA Tour
Dean Wilson shot an 8-under-par 62 to take the lead at the Texas Open and David Duval made his first 36-hole cut this year.
Wilson had a 12-under 128 total after two rounds at the LaCantera Golf Club in San Antonio, one stroke in front of Jeff Maggert and John Senden and nine in front of Duval, the world’s former No. 1 player who had missed 18 straight cuts and broken par just once this year before shooting a 1-under 69 on Thursday.
Seve Trophy
Britain-Ireland won the second set of fourballs 3-2, cutting Continental Europe’s lead to 6-4 after two days of the Seve Trophy.
Captain Colin Montgomerie kept the same teams that lost Thursday in Billingham, England, but rearranged the order.
Montgomerie and Graeme McDowell lost 3 and 2 to Thomas Bjorn and Henrik Stenson, while Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd lost by two holes to Maarten Lafeber and Emanuele Canonica.
However, the three other Britain-Ireland pairings – Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, David Howell and Paul Casey and Ian Poulter and Nick Dougherty – won their matches.
Champions Tour
Mike McCullough won the Georgia-Pacific Grand Champions Championship in Atlanta, shooting a bogey-free 7-under 65 for a two-stroke victory over Bruce Summerhays in the unofficial Champions Tour event for players 60 and older.
McCullough had an 11-under 133 total at Hawks Ridge Golf Club, earning $85,000 from the $400,000 purse.
LPGA Tour
High school senior Morgan Pressel, in danger of failing the first stage of LPGA Tour qualifying, had a 9-under 63 to finish among the top 30 and advance to the finals in December.
The 17-year-old Pressel, who tied for second in the U.S. Women’s Open and won the U.S. Women’s Amateur, was on the bubble starting the final round at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., until she ran off a string of birdies and thought briefly about a 59.