Tiger Woods and his former caddy, Steve Williams, shook hands at the first tee at famed Royal Melbourne Golf Club before Thursday's final foursomes match of day one at the Presidents Cup.
Woods, Williams and Scott during their foursomes
The gesture and their smiles were clearly part of a move to defuse tension after Williams, who switched his services to Adam Scott when Woods let him go in July, sparked a global controversy by making a derogatory remark with racial overtones about Woods at a private Caddies award dinner in Shanghai two weeks ago
US captain Fred Couples and Internationals skipper Greg Norman on Wednesday put an end to days of intense media speculation when they named Woods and playing partner Steve Stricker as the opponents of Australian Scott and South Korea's KJ Choi for the final match of Thursday's six foursomes matches
After greeting and shaking hands with Williams to light applause from the large gallery, Woods, making his seventh Presidents Cup appearance in the US bid to win their fourth successive trophy, fired his drive straight down the middle of the fairway at famed Royal Melbourne where the Americans suffered their first and only Presidents Cup loss in 1998.
However, when the first of the foursomes matches started going through the turn, Woods and Steve Stricker, who were unbeaten in the last Presidents Cup at Harding Park in San Francisco two years ago, found themselves two-down to Scott and Choi and the US two-down in matches to the Australian-dominated International team.
The Internationals at this stage trailed in the first match where their veteran South African Ernie Els and 'baby' of the team Ryo Ishikawa of Japan were two down after 10 holes to US Cup rookie Webb Simpson and the long-hitting Bubba Watson and in the second to last match where the Korean combination of Yang and Kim of were 2-down to the US's Hunter Mahan and David Toms.
Everywhere else, it was the Internationals who were in front, the local-favourites having gone 4-2 up with Geoff Ogilvy and Masters champion Charl Schwartzel leading Fedex Champion Bill Haas and Nick Watney 1-up after nine holes, the Australian pair of Aaron Baddeley and Jason Day 2-up over Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar, Retief Goosen and Robert Allenby 1-up after six holes against US veteran Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk ands
Scot and Choi 2-up.
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