Big three lead the way for American team

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Tiger Woods (left), Steve Stricker (right) and Phil Mickelson are a combined 11-0-1 for the U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO -- NBA superstar Michael Jordan asked for, and grudgingly was given, 12 strokes by Sean O'Hair when the two played a practice round at Harding Park on Monday.

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O'Hair would later acknowledge that he went to his wallet more than once, too -- joking that he's the only player who's ever had to pay to play in The Presidents Cup.

But luckily for Captain Fred Couples as he contemplates Sunday's deciding session of Singles, the United States Team looks to have at least three sure bets. And each of the three knows better than to allow the basketball Hall of Famer so many shots.

Anything can happen over 18 holes of match play, of course, but Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker have played like the world's top three players that they are over the first four matches of The Presidents Cup. And there is no reason to expect that to change on Sunday when the Americans need five points to retain the trophy.

Woods and Stricker are 4-0 as partners and bidding to join Mark O'Meara (1998) and Shigeki Maruyama (1998) as the only players to win all five matches in a Presidents Cup. Mickelson is 3-0-1, with the halve being a hard-fought Four-Ball with O'Hair in Saturday's final match that saw the Americans rally from 2 down on the back nine.

Of the three, Stricker will be the first to play on Sunday, facing Geoff Ogilvy in the fifth match of the day. Between them, the two have won three World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championships, but even Ogilvy would tell you Stricker has had the more consistent 2009 campaign.

Four matches later, Woods takes on Y.E. Yang, which has to be the marquee match on Sunday. After all, the Korean played with Woods and beat him at the PGA Championship, ending the world No. 1's impressive streak of winning majors when he owns the 54-hole lead at 14.

Mickelson gets a rematch with Retief Goosen in the afternoon's penultimate match. Again, there's added incentive since the South African took a 2-and-1 victory in 2003 and Mickelson's record in Singles overall stands at a disappointing 1-3-3.

If the Americans end up winning The Presidents Cup as expected, the comeback Stricker and Woods mounted against Mike Weir and the underrated Tim Clark on Saturday morning in Foursomes may end up being among the deciding factors. The Americans won the final two holes with Woods jarring a 23-footer at the 17th and unleashing a brilliant approach at the par-5 18th from 232 yards that settled 9 feet from the pin.

"The defining moment today was when Woods and Stricker turned around a 1 down with two to go ... to end up winning. That's what the difference is," International captain Greg Norman said. "If they keep the lead, if Tiger doesn't make that putt on 17, and Weir makes the putt, it's all over and we go into tomorrow behind one point.

"Don't over analyze this whole thing. It was just great golf by Tiger Woods making the putt on 17 turning the whole thing around and he obviously hit a phenomenal shot on 18, but there was one, two, three, four strokes in the whole three days made the difference between three points and one point."

Couples agreed. "Our team is primed and ready to go up against Greg's 12 guys tomorrow, and like he said, I believe we have to win less matches than their team does," he said. "So we are in better shape because of Tiger's and Stricker's flip around there against Tim Clark and Weir, no doubt."

While Stricker and Woods have proven to be a formidable team, though, Mickelson has partnered three different players with the same solid results. First came Anthony Kim, the rookie who plays with Mickelson's mindset that he broke in at The Ryder Cup last year. Next was his long-time friend, Justin Leonard, who was smarting from a missed 3-footer on the 18th hole that turned a potential U.S. victory into a tie.

On Saturday, Mickelson's project -- just as Jordan said his was earlier in the week -- was O'Hair. The rookie had lost his first two matches but found a comfort zone with Mickelson, who is coming off a win at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola and has more confidence in his putter than he has had in years.

"Right now I think Phil is just hitting it very long, very straight and he's putting it straight," O'Hair said. "So that takes a lot of pressure off the playing partner to where you feel like you have to play well. Definitely this morning, I felt like basically I could hit it anywhere and I was going to be fine.

"By feeling that way, all of a sudden, you start hitting nicely, and you give him a few nice shots, whether it be you hit a long drive and you put a wedge in his hand or you give him a nice opportunity on the green, and that's kind of his forte.

"And I think he just made me feel very comfortable, which is nice, and I don't know if he's done that with other players; I would assume he does. And just when he gets hot, I think it's just nice to feed off of somebody like that. You know, he just gets on those runs where every putt starts to look like it's going to go in, and he gets a few of them to go in."