Tough for Gary Player to spin terrible International play Saturday morning

MONTREAL - Ernie Els hasn’t done anything this week for the International Team at the Presidents Cup. This was pointed out to International Captain Gary Player on Friday.

Player laughed and said, “Well, I don’t know. I think he hit some wonderful shots today.”

It wasn’t that surprising that Player would spin it that way, especially on a day when his International Team dominated the Americans.

It will be harder for Player to spin Saturday’s morning foursomes, however.

The American Team trounced the International Team this morning, winning all five matches to now lead the Presidents Cup 12 points to 5. Unless the International Team does something in the afternoon’s four-balls, Sunday’s singles match-ups are looking to be pointless.

Already, fans here are wondering if they’ll be able to sell their Sunday tickets.

Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk were able to come back after a terrible effort on Friday, easily handling Ernie Els and Adam Scott 4 and 3.

Woody Austin, who’s been playing solid all week, needed a little more help this morning, and he got some from Phil Mickelson as the two pretty much destroyed Retief Goosen and Stuart Appleby, 5 and 4.

The morning’s results:

Steve Stricker/Hunter Mahan def. Trever Immelman/Rory Sabbatini 2 up
Phil Mickelson/Woody Austin def. Retief Goosen/Stuart Appleby 5 and 4
Tiger Woods/Jim Furyk def. Adam Scott/Ernie Els 4 and 3
Lucas Glove/Scott Verplank def. Vijay Singh/Mike Weir 2 and 1
David Toms/Zach Johnson def. Nick O’HernGeoff Ogilvy 2 and 1

Here are this afternoon’s four-ball match-ups:

Stewart Cink/Jim Furyk vs. Angel Cabrera/K.J. Choi
Phil Mickelson/Woody Austin vs. Retief Goosen/Adam Scott
Charles Howell III/Lucas Glover vs. Mike Weir/Ernie Els
Steve Stricker/Hunter Mahan vs. V.J. Singh/Stuart Appleby
Tiger Woods/David Toms vs. Geoff Ogilvy/Nick O’Hern