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Tiger Woods put on an absolute clinic in his first match of the Presidents Cup

Josh BerhowBy Josh Berhow
December 12, 2019
Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas celebrate during their four-ball match on Thursday at Royal Melbourne.
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While the Presidents Cup is already a pretty big deal in the golf world, this one was supposed to be even bigger with Tiger Woods getting the chance to lead the U.S. team as captain.

And after all the waiting, all the predicting and all the analyzing, we finally got to watch golf on Wednesday night in the States — and Woods didn’t disappoint.

Woods, who dubbed himself a “playing captain” for the event, was in the first group off on Thursday morning at Royal Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia, and he got an early point for the U.S. Woods teamed with Justin Thomas to beat Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann 4 and 3 in four-balls. (The Internationals lead 4-1 overall.)

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Woods made six birdies in 15 holes, including the final two to clinch the match. Then he went straight to captain mode, putting on the earpiece to monitor the rest of the squad during the first day of action.

He opened his day with back-to-back birdies to go 2 up in the match, and Woods and Thomas went 3 up when Woods chipped in for birdie on the par-3 5th (and told Thomas to fetch it).

Woods and Thomas were 2 up at the turn, and after pars on 10, Woods pulled off this long bunker shot on the 11th to get up and down for birdie and go 3 up.

The Internationals won the 12th hole with a Leishman birdie, but on 14 Woods knocked one tight and made his fifth birdie to go back to 3 up.

His sixth birdie came on the very next hole and clinched the match. You can check out the entire Presidents Cup leaderboard here. Day 2 begins Thursday night (ET) with five foursomes matches.