Golf: Down to singles as US levels

Tiger Woods

GAINESVILLE - Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk staged a late rally to win their afternoon fourball match before the United States and the International golf team ended the third day of the Presidents Cup deadlocked at 11-11 yesterday.

Trailing by 6 1/2 points to 5 1/2 overnight, the US pulled level on 8 1/2 points after winning the morning foursomes 3-2.

Unbeaten in the three previous contests staged at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, the US were unable to forge ahead in the afternoon as the sides shared the fourball encounters with two wins apiece and one half.

For the first time on their home soil, the Americans will not hold the upper hand going into today's last-day singles matches.

South Africa's Retief Goosen and Australia's Adam Scott put the first point of the afternoon on the board for the Internationals with a crushing 5 and 4 win over Scott Verplank and Justin Leonard.

However, Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco eclipsed that scoreline with a 6 and 5 triumph over Australian duo Peter Lonard and Nick O'Hern, preserving their unbeaten record last week after getting to eight under after 13 holes.

The winning team will be the first to 17 1/2 points.

In yesterday's most intriguing match-up, world No 1 Woods and Furyk recovered from 1 down with six to play in their fourball contest with Fiji's Vijay Singh and Australian Stuart Appleby before clinching the 16th and 18th for a 2 up victory.

Bothered by a sore back, Masters and British Open champion Woods relied on his partner to do most of the work as the pairing fought to stay in the match over the first 12 holes after three times trailing by a hole.

Woods, however, came up with the big shot when it was needed most, rolling in a 5m birdie putt at the par-four 16 to put the Americans ahead for the first time before they sealed the win at the last.

There was little to separate the game's two leading players, and Woods and Furyk halved the foursomes match when the 10-time major winner drained a clutch 1.5m putt at the 18th.

Australia's Mark Hensby and South African Tim Clark eased to a 5 and 3 win over Kenny Perry and Stewart Cink before four-time World Cup winners Davis Love and Fred Couples halved a close tussle with Argentina's Angel Cabrera and New Zealander Michael Campbell.

Couples had a chance to give the US the outright lead but missed his birdie attempt from 2.4m at the last.

- REUTERS