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Texas Giants Come Up Big Again
By Rick Adams
Verplank and Leonard, who have turned into one of US captain Jack Nicklaus' “two strong teams” in this biennial goodwill competition, pushed their record this week to 2-0-0 with a 2-and-1 victory over the International pair. “Scott made a lot of great putts today and we feel pretty fortunate to have won the match,” said Leonard. Jack's other go-to guys are ham-and-eggers Phil Mickelson and Chris Dimarco, also 1-0-1 after halving with one of International captain Gary Player's best combos -- New Zealand's Michael Campbell and Angel Cabrera of Argentina. The teams split the available total points, 3-3, on the day, allowing Player's contingent to retain the lead, 6 ½ points to 5 ½. Vijay Singh and Tim Clark rallied from three different 1-down deficits to halve with Fred Funk and Stewart Cink. Australians Peter Lonard and Nick O'Hern dusted Davis Love III and Kenny Perry, 3 and 2, the Americans' second straight inexplicable loss. And walking wounded Tiger Woods (back pain) and Jim Furyk (rib spasms) nonetheless romped over another all-Aussie pair, erratic Stuart Appleby and Mark Hensby the intense. Leonard and Verplank's reward for their stellar play is a Saturday morning alternate-shot match against Player's only 2-0-0 pairing – No. 5 in the world Retief Goosen and No. 7 Adam Scott. Leonard is No. 24, Verplank No. 25. Stutter Start, Staccato Finish As they did Thursday, Justin and Scott started slowly, bogeying the 1 st hole and failing to equal Weir's birdie from the bunker on the 3 rd to fall 2-down. On the 5 th , Verplank blasted a 310-yard drive right up the sprinkler line, more than 25 yards past his fellow competitors, then dropped the wedge within 5 feet. With Woods and Furyk both chopping out of rough at the nearby 3 rd green and Player observing from a golf cart in the shade, Scott rolled in the birdie to cut the deficit in half. After Leonard saved par and a halve on the tricky 8 th with a hard-breaking 12-footer, Verplank stiffed a 7-iron on the watery par-3 ninth for a deuce that squared the match. Just ahead of threatening clouds, Scott birdied the par-5 12 th for a lead the Texans never relinquished. Once the rain blew through, Verplank added another birdie from 15 feet on No. 13 to extend the lead to 2-up. On the 175-yard 14 th , JL rattled in a 30-foot birdie to halve Immelman's kick-in deuce from five feet. The scrappy Immelman, winner of five European Tour events, followed up with birdie at the short part-4 15 th , and Weir burned the edge of the hole at No. 16 to nearly square matters. This was all prelude for the hole with one of Justin's favorite numbers – 17. It was at the 17 th at The Country Club in Brookline that he holed the winning 45-footer in the 1999 Ryder Cup. On Friday, it was Scott's turn on No. 17, lasering his 102-yard wedge approach to two feet to punctuate the point. Over the final nine holes, Leonard and Verplank each made four birdies on their own ball. As a team they have 13 birdies in 33 holes across the first two days.
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Prince William County, Virginia (September 23) – In a sport increasingly dominated by tall or burly men who drive the ball unseemly distances, the best group on the course Friday at the President's Cup included four players who are all 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds or lighter. And in this battle of diminutive giants, native Texans Scott Verplank and Justin Leonard stood just a wee taller than South African Trevor Immelman and Canada 's Mike Weir.