U.S. Team paints the board red

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – A fan asked Paulina Gretzky if she would take a selfie with him as he stood alongside the 16th hole on Friday. She stopped and smiled for the camera, then turned and continued toward the green. The man looked at the photo on his friend’s phone. “Dude,â€� he said. “I look SO bad.â€� At least he knows how the International Team feels. They’ve played the Foursomes in the wind, and the U.S. Team won 3.5-1.5. They’ve played the Four-balls in the calm, and the U.S. Team won 4.5-.5, building an eyebrow-raising 8-2 lead going into the weekend at the Presidents Cup at Liberty National. This marks the biggest lead ever through two sessions, and the Americans could theoretically win prior to Sunday singles. Asked what he told his players, International Team Captain Nick Price laughed. “The guys are trying,â€� Price said. “That’s all I can tell you. They’re trying their tails off.â€� How bleak was it was for the Internationals? When Jordan Spieth’s birdie putt lipped out on 18, leaving the favored Spieth and Patrick Reed with only a halve in their match against Adam Hadwin and Hideki Matsuyama, the Fantatics, those yellow-clad Australians who cheer for the perennial underdog in this event, broke into song. Their boys had won half a point. Dominance looked like Justin Thomas holing out from a greenside bunker at the 14th hole, and sounded like the chant of “USA! USA!â€� as he and partner Rickie Fowler beat the Internationals’ previously unbeaten tandem of Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen, 3 and 2. It was Dustin Johnson making birdies at 15 and 16 as the bash-brothers Johnson and Brooks Koepka handled Adam Scott and Jhonattan Vegas, also 3 and 2. American rookies Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell, fueled by Hoffman’s kick-in eagle at the par-5 second hole, cruised to the most lopsided win of the day, a 6 and 5 victory over the wildly misfiring Charl Schwartzel and Anirban Lahiri. Everything that could go right did go right for the Americans, including a choreographed dance from that old classic “The Three Amigosâ€� that Phil Mickelson and Kevin Kisner had practiced beforehand. When Mickelson rolled in a birdie putt of just over 12 feet at the 18th hole to beat Jason Day and Marc Leishman 1 up, the dance was on. “I thought we biffed it when we were doing it,â€� Mickelson said, “but when I looked back and saw the replay, I think we kind of nailed it actually (laughter). “I get that I can’t dance. I get that I can’t take selfies, but I can putt, and it was nice to roll that last one in.â€� The selfie reference was a nod to Mickelson’s photo with Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama on Thursday, when Lefty accidentally aimed too high and cut off half his face. It’s one of the few things that hasn’t gone right for the Americans. Well, that plus Mickelson’s failure to birdie 18 on Thursday, when he and Kisner could only manage a halve against Day and Leishman. “He brought it up to me again this morning,â€� U.S. Team Captain Steve Stricker said, “so it was eating at him.â€� Meanwhile, seemingly everything that could go wrong for the Internationals has. At the second hole, where Lahiri needed to hole his bunker shot for eagle to tie Hoffman, he left the shot on the lip. With the Americans having taken a 2 up lead, Lahiri raked the ball back and tried the shot again, but that’s a violation of Rule 7-2, which states that players may not hit practice shots in the bunkers as they do on the greens. “He’s obviously trying to prove to all of us that his pick was worth it,â€� Price said, “and it’s put a lot of pressure on him. I think today he showed that; he was very tight out there.â€� Lahiri was disqualified from playing the third hole, leaving Schwartzel by himself; the South African at least halved it with a par. Matsuyama misjudged his second shot at the par-5 ninth hole, which ballooned in the air and dropped into the lake in front of the green, leaving partner Hadwin by himself. Abandonment issues abounded for the Internationals. “You have both got to put balls in the fairway so they can have a shot and have two putts at birdie,â€� Price said, “and a lot of times it was two against one today.â€� His biggest challenge now is convincing his team that it can still win, or, as he told the media, “We’ve only had 10 points out of 30, so there’s a lot of golf left.â€� Stricker’s challenge has been finding players to sit. Matsuyama made it easy on Price, telling the International Team captain he wasn’t playing well and, in so many words, to bench him for the next session. (Price did.) But too many Americans are in the groove. How do you sit Hoffman and Chappell after the performance they had Friday, mixing and matching for an eagle and four birdies? How do you sit Koepka, after his and Johnson’s win? Then again, Spieth and Reed simply have to keep playing, as do Fowler and Thomas, and Kisner and Mickelson. “We’d be the stupidest guys on earth if we split up Spieth and Reed, and J.T. and Rickie,â€� Stricker said. He devised many of these two-man pairings months ago, and when asked how closely this week has followed the blueprints, he said, “It’s been pretty close.â€� Blue. Close. Two words you wouldn’t use to describe the Presidents Cup, so far.

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