Tiger Woods has described his final putt at the fifth Presidents Cup between the US and the Internationals as one of the most nerve-wracking moments of his life.
The world No. 1 was locked in a unique sudden-death playoff for the trophy with South Africa's world No. 3 Ernie Els, after both teams had ended regulation play level on 17 points.
Woods had to hole an uphill 15-footer to stay in the match.
"It was tough, not only for the fact that if you missed your putt, you let your team mates down, your captain, the assistant captain, all of the wives, girlfriends and everybody that's part of the team," Woods said.
"You let everyone down with one putt, that's a lot of pressure. That was actually one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life."
The 27-year-old added: "When I was getting over the putt, I kept reminding myself: just a little slow. But I saw all this red [his US team mates] and I was just trying to block that out.
"I just got into my little world and made the putt."
Non-playing US team captain Jack Nicklaus said the putt, which Woods made at the third extra hole, was amazingly difficult.
"We couldn't even see the hole, let alone try to putt," said Nicklaus, who won 18 majors.
"It was up and over, down and sliding away, with a break of 10 to 12 inches.
Els, the local favorite, lost 4 and 3 against an inspired Woods, who played his best golf of the week in sweltering heat at the Links Course at Fancourt.
Woods took the lead for the first time over Els with a two-putt for birdie on the par-five fifth hole and picked up further shots on the sixth, eighth and 12th holes while Els won the 10th.
Woods closed out the match on the par-four 15th when 34-year-old Els, a three-time major winner, three-putted from 60 feet to give the US a vital point.
International captain Gary Player and Els hailed the agreement to share the cup.
Player said: "That was something really special for Jack and his team to do because if it didn't happen we wanted to go on in the dark."
Els said: "At the end I think what happened was fair. In the spirit of the Presidents Cup and the way we have been playing these matches over the years, I think this is a fitting finish to this one.
"We really beat each other up, we were evenly matched and it would have been unfair to myself and Tiger to win or lose the Cup."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier