MELBOURNE, Australia -- The Americans returned Down Under and this time wound up on top in the Presidents Cup.
Jim Furyk became the fourth player to win all five of his matches, and the bottom half of the lineup was strong enough Sunday to give the Americans their fourth straight win in this lopsided series.
Perhaps it was only fitting that Tiger Woods clinched the cup for the second straight time.
U.S. captain Fred Couples was criticized for using a pick on Woods, who had been out with an injury most of the summer and had not won since his personal life crumbled two years ago. Woods played well all week,even if he didn't always get rewarded with a point. In his singles match against Aaron Baddeley, he was never seriously challenged.
Woods closed out Baddeley, 4 and 3, and the celebration was on. The only thing left was for Steve Stricker in the anchor match to beat Y.E. Yang for the final score, 19-15.
"I was hoping it wasn't going to come down to us," Woods said. I was hoping that Stricks and I could take a victory lap back here. But we didn't get off to a good start early. I was telling Joey (LaCava) on the range,'It's probably going to come down to the last four matches.' We needed to get our point, so we went out there and played really well today and put a lot of heat on Badds."
Couples said Woods was ready to go all week at Royal Melbourne.
"He was ready for a month," Couples said. "Certainly, I couldn't answer how he was going to play, but this week I think he showed to himself that his swing is back and he's healthy,TaylorMade R11 Driver and that's more important to me. Obviously, we want to win the cup, but's more important for me to have people realize that he can play the game."
He can celebrate, too.
Woods took his turn in joining in the Fanatics, the Aussie group that goes to big sporting events. Woods even donned one of their green caps andwholesale golf clubsslapped hands in the crowd.