US wrap up President’s Cup

“We came into this week with a little score to settle in the international golf arena and I think we showed everybody that we can play again,” said Cink, whose 6-and-4 victory over Australian Nick O’Hern provided the clinching point yesterday.

Mickelson, 0-3-3 in prior Cup singles, beat Fiji’s Vijai Singh 5 and 4 and Verplank, 4-0 this week, beat South African Rory Sabbatini 2 and 1, to bring two of the three yesterday triumphs needed for the Americans to keep the Cup.

“Scott Verplank was my rock,” US captain Jack Nicklaus said. “Phil played great and Stewart played great. That’s what we needed. We’ve squeezed it out.”

With most of the attention focused on Canadian Mike Weir’s 1-up victory over world number one Tiger Woods, there was little fanfare at the 14th hole when Cink closed out the team triumph.

“I’m happy to be the one to clinch the Cup,” Cink said. “When you’re by yourself it means you won your match early. You don’t want to keep playing golf when you’re ahead.”

Once Cink pushed the US across the line at Royal Montreal Golf Club, the Internationals finished well but victories by Weir, Australian Adam Scott, Argentina’s Angel Cabrera and South Korean K J Choi only shrank the final gap.

“It’s disappointing for us, but I played better every day,” Scott said. “It’s just hard-fought matches. The US played great throughout the week and we left ourselves a lot to do.”

Internationals players, who won in 1998 at Australia and drew in 2003 at South Africa, had never outscored US rivals in any President’s Cup singles session until doing so 7-5 yesterday.

“Our guys can hold their head up high,” Internationals captain Gary Player said. “They won more singles matches, made a match of it.”

Mickelson lost the first hole but won four of the next six to go and never trailed again while Cink began with five birdies to humble O’Hern, who twice has beaten Woods in match-play.

“We wanted the momentum,” Mickelson said. “I was fortunate to get off to a good start and was able to close it out early.”

Verplank birdied the last two holes and improved to 10-3 with a halve in President’s and Ryder Cups to keep Sabbatini winless in his Cup debut.

“I just love playing team golf,” Verplank said. “I have a pretty good record because I enjoy it so much. I feel like I’m a pretty good teammate and I know how to work with teammates too.”

South Africa’s Ernie Els, 3-down after six holes, won four of his last six holes to beat US rookie Hunter Mahan 2-up, but that only delayed defeat.

“I was in deep trouble,” Els said. “I got off to a slow start. I bettered myself and got back into the game, made some birdies on the back nine and got it done.”

Weir’s emotional comeback triumph over Woods before a loud crowd was not an anti-climax for the home-nation star, who went a Cup-best 3-1-1 this week.

Woods won for the fourth time in five holes at the 15th after Weir found the water off the tee to go 1-up, his first lead of the match. But Weir birdied 17 to square the match and won 18 after Woods found swampy water off the tee.