USA wins Presidents Cup

The United States has won the Presidents Cup for the fourth straight time. Tiger Woods secured the winning point for the Americans over the International side at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia.

The Americans were in control in Melbourne from the very first session. They led at the end of each day and carried a 13-9 lead into the final day's singles matches. In Sunday's early contests, the International side rallied and wins from Ryo Ishikawa, K.T. Kim and Geoff Ogilvy provided some hope. But, although the door was left fractionally open, the Americans were quick to close it firmly.

David Toms cruised to a 7&6 victory over Robert Allenby while Jim Furyk beat Ernie Els by 4&3 to become only the fourth player to win all five of his matches in a single Presidents Cup. On the back of a disappointing season, the performance gave Furyk a good deal of confidence.

"I felt better about my game than what I've been playing this year, and I kind of want to thank my partners," he said.

Woods who'd shown decent form through the event then closed out the match with a comfortable 4&3 win over Aaron Baddeley. It was a welcome point for the former World Number 1 who had won just one other match over the four days.

"I was hoping it wasn't going to come down to us," Woods said. I was hoping that Stricks and I could take a victory lap back here. But we didn't get off to a good start early. I was telling Joey (LaCava) on the range, 'It's probably going to come down to the last four matches.' We needed to get our point, so we went out there and played really well today and put a lot of heat on Badds."

Woods' point was also some vindication for US captain Fred Couples who'd received significant criticism for his selection of Tiger over PGA champion Keegan Bradley.

"He was ready for a month," Couples said. "Certainly, I couldn't answer how he was going to play, but this week I think he showed to himself that his swing is back and he's healthy."

Greg Norman's international side, who'd started the week slight favourites, were left scratching their heads as to how they might secure victory in this biennial contest. Their last win came at Royal Melbourne back in 1998.

"It's disappointing to not get the cup this year," said Adam Scott who secured a 2&1 singles win over Phil Mickelson. "We played hard. I think it's just a really demanding golf course. No matter how good you are, on this course it's just too hard to hit the ball well to get it around here. And they might have done it just a little bit better than us this week." Where next?
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