Team International leads World Champions Cup by half point

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In a sign of how unpredictable the first-year World Champions Cup can be, Team International leads the PGA Tour Champions event after Friday's play by a half point at the end of day two.

Team International was third, and last, after the first day.

Team International has 111.5 points to second-place Team USA, which is only a half point behind. Team Europe, which led the competition after the first day, has 101.5. 

Team International captain Ernie Els said he did not panic after the first day's results. Els talked to his players after their first-day problems and they all responded that they felt they could play better with a day's experience on The Concession course. They asked Els not to change the pairings, and he didn't.

"We had dinner last night, we talked about a couple of things," Els said. "The guys were well fed so they were ready to go." 

Els joked that he got a scare when he saw that Team Europe and Team USA had also left their pairings the same. 

"I said, 'Is this thing rigged?'" Els said. "What the hell's going on? We're all thinking the same thing. It was weird and so funny, seeing the same guys again all day today." 

Team International was led the by pairing of Steven Alker and Retief Goosen, which earned 12 points during the morning Six Ball session and 10.5 points during the afternoon Scotch Sixsome session. Both scores led the pair's grouping. 

"Me and (Steven) Alker combined well," Goosen said. "We were never really in a lot of trouble, so it was nice going. And it was great to see everybody else playing so well, too, and making up some lost ground from yesterday. It's going to be an exciting day come Sunday. It's a pity that we're not playing tomorrow. It would have been nice to keep the momentum going." 

The teams expect the volatility in scoring to continue into the event's final day on Sunday, which will see 12 singles matches (involving one player from each team) take place over the course of a morning and afternoon session. The singles matches will represent half of the event's available points, so all three teams are still within striking distance. 

"It's totally different," Team Europe captain Darren Clarke said of the singles matches. "You've got to be a little bit more defensive, but then at the same time — because we're obviously behind — we've got to make some points. I think the volatility's going to rocket up a lot. You can hit some good shots out there and get maybe not as rewarded as what you would expect because of the greens and how severe some of the slopes are. So you can find yourself in a real tricky situation very easily without actually hitting a bad shot." 

The event will pause on Saturday for an an 18-hole pro-am at The Concession Golf Club. The course will be closed to the public. 

Sunday's final day of the World Champions Cup will begin with a morning session at 9:30 a.m., then an afternoon session at 1:10 p.m. Lineups for the day's morning session will be released Saturday. Teams will have the option of adjusting their lineups before the afternoon session. 

 

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Ryan Kohn

Ryan Kohn is the sports editor for Sarasota and East County and a Missouri School of Journalism graduate. He was born and raised in Olney, Maryland. His biggest inspirations are Wright Thompson and Alex Ovechkin. His strongest belief is that mint chip ice cream is unbeatable.

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