One putt changed everything except the lead yesterday in the Presidents Cup.
The Americans were poised to seize control in the opening session of foursomes at Harding Park, already assured of the lead and on the verge of winning the final match for a two-point advantage.
Justin Leonard had a three-foot birdie putt to win -- a putt he first thought had been conceded -- and was stunned when the putt caught the right edge of the cup and spun away.
The match was halved, and the Americans were forced to settle for a 3½-2½ lead.
"We wanted to get out of the day with pretty close to a push, and I'm very, very happy," International captain Greg Norman said.
Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker were dominant from the start, playing bogey free in the alternate-shot format and teaming for six birdies in a 6-and-4 victory over Geoff Ogilvy and Ryo Ishikawa, 18.
Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim came to life late, closing with four straight birdies to give the Americans the first point of the matches with a 3-and-2 victory over Mike Weir and Tim Clark.
The final push figured to come from Leonard and Jim Furyk, who made a furious rally in the middle of the match and surged ahead of Retief Goosen and Y.E. Yang, 2 up with two holes to play.
Goosen holed a birdie putt on the 17th to send the match to the par-5 18th.The International team got a birdie, and Goosen looked at Furyk as if wondering why Leonard even needed to putt. Eventually, Goosen realized the putt meant something. Did it ever.
"I just hit a bad putt," Leonard said. "I knew I was going to need to make that little putt. Unfortunately, I missed it."
Norman said there was no gamesmanship on Goosen's part.
"He thought the match was over," Norman said. "He didn't concede the putt, he just thought the match was over. It was a legitimate mistake, and no intent or malice. It was just the intensity of the game."
Next up are six more matches today, this time fourballs.
Two years ago, the International team failed to win a match in the opening session and fell five points behind. This is one time a tie -- the halve in the final match -- felt far better. It goes into the second round with a fighting chance.
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