Partners Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk and the rest of the U.S. team rebounded from a tough day by sweeping the Saturday morning foursome matches to take a commanding 12-5 lead over the International team at the Presidents Cup in Montreal.
Overwhelmed by Vijay Singh and Stuart Appleby in a 5-and-4 four-ball rout Friday afternoon, Woods and Furyk returned to Royal Montreal Golf Club to beat Ernie Els and Adam Scott 4 and 3 in alternate-shot play.
The sweep — the fourth in Presidents Cup history — gave the United States 10½ of the 11 available points in the two foursomes sessions. Five best-ball matches were set for Saturday afternoon and the event will finish Sunday with 12 singles matches.
"We've got to keep our guard up and keep going," said U.S. captain Jack Nicklaus, whose team won 5½ of a possible six points Thursday before seeing its lead cut to 7-5 Friday.
Woody Austin and Phil Mickelson also had a convincing win in brisk, sunny conditions Saturday morning, beating Appleby and Retief Goosen 5 and 4. The victory was Mickelson's first in his last nine international matches dating to the 2005 Presidents Cup.
Canadian Mike Weir and partner Singh fell 2 and 1 to Lucas Glover and Scott Verplank, the 2001 Canadian Open winner at Royal Montreal.
In other matches, Steve Stricker and Hunter Mahan held off Rory Sabbatini and Trevor Immelman 2-up, and David Toms and Zach Johnson beat Geoff Ogilvy and Nick O'Hern 2 and 1.
With files from the Associated PressSizzling Ovechkin rolls in to Toronto
Reigning NHL points champion and MVP Alex Ovechkin looks to continue his scoring resurgence as he carries the injury depleted Washington Capitals to Toronto on Saturday night (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 6:30 p.m. ET).
Rose reinstatement still 'under review': Selig
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig told reporters Tuesday that Pete Rose's application for reinstatement remains 'under review,' 12 years after it was filed.
Samaki Walker waived by Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks waived veteran forward Samaki Walker on Wednesday.
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