FanHouse Sean OHair

For the last big event of the 2009 season, the Presidents Cup gave us more drama than the score might appear. A captain's pick failing to win a point (Gasp!). An 18-year-old rookie stealing the show for the losing team (Wow!). And, as you probably expected, the number one golfer in the world doing exactly what he does, week in and week out. So who left Harding Park a winner, and who will look back at this event wishing it never happened?

SAN FRANCISCO -- If there are three iron-clad certainties in golf, you have to figure close behind the balls having dimples and Tiger Woods having it all, comes the United States having its way in the Presidents Cup.

The Internationals came, they played, they got thumped.

Once more, without a lot of feeling.

Any drama a cold, gloomy-gray Sunday at Harding Park Golf Club hoped to generate, could not possibly have vanished any quicker.

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For all the things Tiger Woods has done in his career, he had never stood over a putt to clinch a team match ... until Sunday. Eying a birdie putt on the par-4 13th, Tiger needed to do what he'd done all week at the Presidents Cup, and when the ball disappeared, it was another feather in the hat of Mr. Woods and a turkey leg for the Americans.

The victory for the Americans was their third in a row, and Tiger left Harding Park, the site of his 2005 American Express Championship victory, 5-0, only the third time anyone has even finished the Presidents Cup with such a flawless record.

Of course, it wasn't all Tiger.

He is Tiger Woods, and sometimes, it seems we forget this. He wins six events in 2009 and we complain about his performances at the majors. He is one of the better match play golfers to ever wrap his hands around a cord grip, yet we worry about his team record.

And then he goes and does stuff like he did Saturday morning at Harding Park in San Francisco, and we remember, this guy is so good at golf it's sickening. Playing alongside Steve Stricker for the third time this week at the Presidents Cup, Woods and Stricker found themselves in trouble. Serious trouble. Needing a 22-footer for birdie on 17 just to say in the match, Tiger eyed the putt with the International team of Mike Weir and Tim Clark in tight for birdie.

Woods' putt looked like it might be short the whole way, but one more revolution lead to the biggest Woods fist pump since the 2005 chip-in at Augusta National and a breath of air to Fred Couples' A team. Weir missed the short birdie, and the match went to 18 all square.

There, Tiger did something only Tiger can do.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The greatest shots in Presidents Cup history? No, not a chance. All the same, Justin Leonard played them perfectly.

Let's talk shot making.

He drained them.

"It was knowing I needed to come out and play well today," he said.

Leonard teamed with Phil Mickelson for Friday's Presidents Cup second round and played top shelf. He birdied the first hole to get the American twosome going in the best-ball competition. He kept pounding until finally rolling in a 12-footer at No. 16 to finish off the International team of Retief Goosen and Adam Scott 3 and 2.

It was a performance instrumental in allowing the United State to lead 6½-5½ going into Saturday's third round.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Of all the various formats used during four days of this week's Presidents Cup match-play competition, alternate shot is the indisputable meat grinder.

Two golfers with a single golf ball. One player hits a shot, the other finds it and gets to take the next whack.

Rinse and repeat as necessary.

"Alternate shot -- we all know it's difficult," U.S. captain Fred Couples said. "But it's also an emotional thing."

Copy that, as Jack Bauer would say.

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On the first tee of The Presidents Cup at San Francisco's Harden Park, Adam Scott was introduced and the fans cheered.

It was arguably the biggest crowd Scott had been in front of this year, sans the second-place finish he tied for back at the Sony Open in January. Watching the Australian golfer stand over that ball, and knowing his game this year, guessing where that ball could end up was a total mystery.

Well, it ended up in the middle of the fairway, boomed off the tee, and the rest of the day he continued to hit great golf shots and help earn the first point for the International team, who currently trail the Americans 2-1. Scott, teamed up with Ernie Els, finished off Sean O'Hair and Hunter Mahan 2 and 1 with a birdie on the 323-year, par-4 17th, where Scott hit another towering drive that ended up on the putting surface, giving the Internationals two putts for the match.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- The eighth Presidents Cup begins play Thursday afternoon at Harding Park Golf Club, but the action started Wednesday when team captains, American Fred Couples and International Greg Norman, matched twosomes for six first-round foursome matches.

The alternate-shot competition will begin at 12:10 p.m. PDT with the International pairing of Canadian Mike Weir and South African Tim Clark taking on Americans Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson.

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Greg Norman will play hurt at next week's Presidents Cup.

OK, as captain of the International Team that is taking on the Americans at San Francisco's Harding Park Golf Club, Norman will not hit a shot, but no question he is ailing.

Captain Shark has his right arm in a sling, the result of arthroscopic shoulder surgery performed Wednesday.

"A bit of a surprise," Norman said Friday. "I was trying to delay it until January of next year, but the doctor said I needed to get it done now."

ATLANTA -- It would take a boatload of nerve to come down the stretch of a golf tournament, playing for a $10 million bonus and not lose a single bodily function.

So how much fun was it Sunday afternoon at East Lake Golf Club watching the PGA Tour's best look like they were in need of a extra-large jar of antacids?

Phil Mickelson was the lucky one. Beginning the week No. 14 on the FedEx Cup points list, Lefty admitted from the start he had the slimiest of chances. So he went out Sunday, shot 65 and won The Tour Championship.

The problems were for players who realized what they were chasing.