Couples discontinues Woods-Stricker pairing for four-ball round at Royal Melbourne
After Tiger Woods’ history-making loss in the opening round of the Presidents Cup, U.S. captain Fred Couples has paired Woods up with a new partner, Dustin Johnson, for Friday’s four-ball (better-ball) round at Royal Melbourne.
Woods and Steve Stricker had a successful partnership, going 4-0 in the 2009 Presidents Cup at Harding Park in San Francisco, and 2-1 in the 2010 Ryder Cup. But the duo failed to make a birdie in Thursday’s alternate shot round, losing 7 and 6 to Adam Scott and K.J. Choi.
Couples will keep his most successful duos from Thursday together on Friday, while International captain Greg Norman has done more reshuffling of his lineup. Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk (4 and 3 winners on Thursday) will play Scott and K.T. Kim. David Toms and Hunter Mahan (6 and 5 winners on Thursday) face South Africans Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel. Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson (4 and 2 winners on Thursday) will play Ryo Ishikawa and Ernie Els, one of two teams Norman has kept intact.
In addition, Couples will keep Nick Watney and Bill Hass together. They rallied from a 2 down with four left deficit to halve Schwartzel and Geoff Ogilvy on Thursday. The young U.S. pair will face Ogilvy and Choi on Friday.
Johnson and Woods will play Jason Day and Aaron Baddeley. The Aussie duo were 3 up after 11 holes on Thursday, but bogeyed the last two holes and halved their match with Johnson and Kuchar.
Woods and Johnson
“I played with Tiger on Tuesday and Wednesday and he was hitting the ball great,” Johnson told the PGA. “I feel good about our pairing.”
Due to incoming weather, Friday’s matches have been pushed forward. They will start at 5:30 p.m. EST Thursday (Golf Channel).
