South African major winners Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel began the Presidents Cup wearing silly wigs to cover up bad haircuts and ended Thursday’s four-ball matches with the last laugh.
Oosthuizen, the 2010 winner of The Open, and 2011 Masters champion Schwartzel defeated reigning champion of The Open Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley 2 and 1.
As a result, the Internationals, who led in no matches when a storm delay struck, only trailed the US 3.5 to 2.5 entering yesterday’s foursomes at Muirfield Village.
Photo: EPA
“Compared to where we were on the front nine, we made a great effort coming back,” said Internationals captain Nick Price, who planned to keep the same pairings for yesterday. “I’m not going to lose faith in those teams. I think they are all ready to take their games to the next level.”
The Americans, who lead the overall rivalry 7-1-1, had not won a four-ball session since 2003, but the global golfers turned a potential disaster into a fightback after the delay.
“Everyone is focused on what we want to achieve,” Oosthuizen said. “It was good to get a little bit of a break to realize we have to go out there and take it from them.”
The tense finish, which saw Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge miss a 15-foot birdie putt on 18 that would have halved his match and left the teams level, was a sharp contrast to when the South African duo reached the first tee in curly blonde and brunette women’s wigs.
“My wife phoned me this morning saying she was in one of those wig shops and there’s two wigs, should we have a go?” Oosthuizen said. “I said: ‘Yeah, bring it.’ Everyone knows about the funny haircut experience we had so I thought it would be a good thing to show everyone we actually love to wear some wigs.”
US captain Fred Couples cracked a smile, saying: “That was pretty fun on the first tee. Those haircuts they got, even though they didn’t like them, sure looked better than those wigs.”
Despite the gag, “Oosty” took the golf very seriously.
“The point was huge for us,” he said. “Me and Charl were really pumped. We wanted to get that win. We knew it would get us going and we were really focused.”
They were to play in yesterday’s alternate-shot foursomes against world No. 1 Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar, the reigning champion at the Memorial, the PGA Tour event played at Muirfield Village.
Australian Jason Day, a Muirfield Village member who lives nearby, sank a 15-foot putt at 18 to give himself and Graham DeLaet a 1-up win over Brandt Snedeker and Hunter Mahan after being 3-down through six holes.
“I just knew if I could give myself a putt on the 18th green that I’ve played here enough to know where the breaks are,” Day said. “Moments like that are why you practice so hard.”
Day and DeLaet were to play Mickelson and Bradley yesterday.
Reigning Masters champion Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama halved with Bill Haas and Webb Simpson after the Japanese 21-year-old birdied two of the last three holes, including the half-point clincher at the 18th.
“It was one of the best shots I’ve ever hit,” Matsuyama said. “Not that I was scared, but I knew Adam was following me and if I missed I knew he would hold me up.”
Scott said the storm delay might have slowed a hot US lineup as much as it helped the Internationals.
“We weren’t going to gain momentum, but we might have stopped theirs a little bit,” he said. “Timely break. Let us creep back in at the end of the day.”
Foursomes is a format the Internationals have struggled with for years, not winning such a session since 2005.
“Everyone is feeling pretty confident after this afternoon,” Scott said. “If we can win the session tomorrow [Friday], then it’s back to level and we might have an advantage.”
US track and field athletes have about four dozen pieces to choose from when assembling their uniforms at the Olympics. The one grabbing the most attention is a high-cut leotard that barely covers the bikini line and has triggered debate between those who think it is sexist and others who say they do not need the Internet to make sure they have good uniforms. Among those critical or laughing at the uniforms included Paralympian Femita Ayanbeku, sprinter Britton Wilson and even athletes from other countries such as Britain’s Abigail Irozuru, who wrote on social media: “Was ANY female athlete consulted in
Forget Real Madrid, Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain, the world’s best soccer team — statistically speaking — might be a little-known outfit from the closed central Asian nation of Turkmenistan. Founded last year, Arkadag, named in honor of former Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, have been unstoppable, notching up 36 consecutive domestic victories in a run still ongoing. The side have not lost a single competitive match and swept to a league and cup double in their inaugural season — success unthinkable almost anywhere else. However, in Turkmenistan, it could hardly have gone any other way. The energy-rich country is one of the most closed
Former US Masters champion Zach Johnson was left embarrassed after a foul-mouthed response to ironic cheers from spectators after a triple bogey at Augusta National on Friday. Johnson, the 2007 Masters winner, missed the cut after his three-over-par round of 75 left him on seven-over 151 for 36 holes, his six on the par-three 12th playing a big role in his downfall. Television footage showed Johnson reacting to sarcastic cheers and applause when he tapped in for the triple bogey by yelling: “Oh fuck off.” Such a response would be considered bad form in any golf tournament, but is particularly out of keeping
Taiwan’s Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan on Saturday won the men’s doubles bronze medal at the Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo, China, after they were bested by the hosts in their semi-final. The Taiwanese shuttlers lost to China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, who advanced to yesterday’s final against Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzudin. The Chinese pair outplayed Lee and Yang in straight games. Although the Taiwanese got off to a slow start in the first game, they eventually tied it 14-14, before Liang and Wang went on to blow past them to win 21-17. In the second game, Lee and