Ah-One, Ah-Two, Ah-You Know What To Do

When me and my friends go out for the night, odds are we take a shot or two. The title of this post is a little slogan we say before taking shots. It is like a heads up to say, "Hey, this is for real." Well, that saying can be applied to the three guys above, because they are for real. If you don't know who these three guys are let me introduce them to you. From left to right we have: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and last but not least Steve Stricker.


These three are the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ranked golfers for 2009, and they all took part in the Presidents Cup this weekend. Most people might think that this means nothing and that the Ryder Cup means much more. Well, this is even greater because the Presidents Cup takes the best golfers from all over the world and puts them against the best the U.S.A. has to offer.

The event stared Thursday as Tiger Woods would team with Steve Stricker. This team hit it off right away with some type of magic. They just played perfect together, which gave Fred Couples no reason to not team them up for the rest of the weekend. Phil Mickelson would team with a new partner everyday, but that wouldn't slow him down one bit. These are the only events that you have a teammate in golf. This is what makes these so special because it is just like other sports, because it takes a team effort to win the match.


They play two different type of team formats. The first is Foursomes, this is where you go alternate shot with your partner. This is a harder way to get birdies because you only get one shot, but Stricker and Woods made them count. Phil on the other hand made some very huge shots because his partner Anthony Kim looked a little nervous. The second team format is Four-Ball, this is where each person plays his own ball. The guy with the lowest score earns a point for his team. This can be dominated individually, but there is strategy to the match. If you have a long driver than he should tee off second, so the first guy can put one down the middle and then you let the big driver grip and rip. So there is more thinking to this then one might think.

Thursday was Foursome format:

Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker got hot right away and never looked back. Tiger Woods had a nice 18 foot birdie putt on hole 2. This gave them a one up lead, and they would never look back. Tiger was sticking irons, while Stricker was knocking down putts. This lead them to a 6&4 win. That means they were up 6 with 4 holes to play.

Phil Mickelson's match was not as easy. It took him a few holes to get things going, but they tied the match on hole 12. This would lead them to winning holes 14-16 to get the 3&2 victory.

Friday Four-Ball scores:

Stricker and Woods started hot again. Stricker chipped in on number 1 to get a 1up lead. He would also knock a wedge to 2 feet on five to give them the lead for good. It was another day that this pairing would not have to play the 16th hole. Stricker and Woods would go on to win 5&3.

Phil Mickelson's team did the same thing as the day before. They went back and forth for most of the match, until the 13th hole. His team would win holes 13, 14, and 16. Phil's team would win the Match 3&2 again.

Saturday Foursome and Four-ball results:

In Foursome play, Stricker and Woods came out and won the first hole again. After that they felt the real first test of the week. The two fell behind on hole 7, and was still down one going into hole 17. This is were the magic began again for Woods and Stricker. Woods made a 25 foot birdie putt on 17 to make the match all square. Then on 18 Woods put the teams second shot 8 feet from the pin for eagle. The Internationals would concede the hole, so Woods and Stricker would stay undefeated for the week.

Phil got paired with Sean O'Hair, which would be a good team also. The team started off slow, but after they won the 5th hole they never looked back. After that they pulled a Woods and Stricker. Phil and Sean went off to win the match 5&3 to get the full point.

In Four-Ball, Tiger and Steve got lucky in the morning match. So they just went out in the afternoon and went straight to work. They played like they had all week by just sticking it to the Internationals. They were up 6 after the 12 hole, only to slip a little bit. After getting beat on holes 13-15 they closed the match out on 16. This improved their record together for the week to an impressive 4-0 for the weekend. They had great chemistry together, and they also just liked being around each other with knuckle bump after knuckle bump. They just worked well together, and picked each other up if they were not doing well. Steve Stricker had just a sick week putting. He also at one point in time birdied 5 in a row, and 6 of 7 holes.

Phil played again with Sean O'Hair in the afternoon Four-Ball. They were down the whole match going into the 12th hole. Phil birdied 12 to move the match to all squared. They would play the final 6 holes at even golf, to give U.S.A. a half of point. It was an exciting match with both teams just making huge putts. On 18 Phil was last up with a birdie try to win it, but he just missed it on the left side of the cup.

Sunday Single Matches:

Going into Sunday U.S.A. had a 12 1/2 to 9 1/2 point lead. They just needed to win a few matches to really put this thing away. That is exactly what they did. They got a few early wins, before Tiger Woods would just go off on Y.E. Yang. This was a rematch of the big from the final pairing of the PGA Championship. For the first time all week, Tiger Woods lost the first hole. After that Y.E. Yang was wishing he would have just slept in on Sunday. Tiger would just take over the match, and make a birdie putt on 13 to win his match. He also gave the United States team the victory with that putt. This was the perfect way for the U.S.A. to win having Tiger make the final putt. If it would have been Stricker or Mickelson that would have been fitting too. Tiger would finish the week with a 5-0 recorded, his best at a Presidents Cup ever.

Steve Stricker would have a rough day in his singles match. He just never really looked like he was getting things going. He would be defeated, but this would not take away anything he did this week. Stricker had just an outstanding week of golf. The guy has been on fire the last couple of years finding his putting stroke, also building confidence with the rest of his game. He would finish with a 4-1 record for the weekend to be a key in the success of the United States victory.


Phil got the job done Sunday in his singles match. Phil never trailed in the match, as he played well the whole day. He won the match 2&1. Phil was the most consistent player for the week, finishing the week with a 4-0-1 record. He really came back towards the end of the year, and will be a threat again next year. The big three in the picture above ended this year with a bang. Look for these guys to come out firing next year, as they fight for the FedEx Cup.

The United States closed out the Internationals 19 1/2- 14 1/2.