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American Team Presidents Cup Report Card

Both the America and International teams can take away plenty of positives from the Presidents Cup. There were some heroic performances from many dressed in red, white, blue and gold.

Unfortunately there were plenty of less than spectacular performances and a few bonehead moves by the players also.

Here’s my Presidents Cup Report Card for the American team with grades based on their on course play (with Sunday singles weighted heavily) with a little sportsmanship and good old fashioned common sense thrown in.

Rickie Fowler D 1-3-0: Maybe the fact that he couldn’t wear his trademark flatbrim caused Fowler’s funk. After a win on Thursday he was skunked including a 6 & 5 shellacking on Sunday.

J.B. Holmes B- 2-2-1: He certainly justified his last minute replacement selection for an injured Jim Furyk. Paired with Bubba Watson they won twice to start but were slowed on Saturday with a half and then a  loss by Oosthuizen & Grace.  He then failed to hold onto his lead in the singles and lost.bae n haas shake

Bill Haas C 1-1-1: The Presidents Cup clincher looked overwhelmed early in the week and he went into Sunday earning only half a point. His consistently left his putts short and surprisingly found himself faced with winning the cup. Three shots won it for him: a 35 foot putt he sank on twelve, his bunker blast at eighteen and Sangmoon Bae’s flubbed chip at the last.

Dustin Johnson B+ 3-1-0: He played well with Jordan Spieth and his only loss came at the hands of the buzz-saw team of Oosthuizen & Grace.

Zach Johnson A 3-0-1: Zach and new partner Phil Mickelson went 2-1-0 and his white washing of Jason Day earned Zach high marks for this week.

Chris Kirk D 1-2: Kirk had an inconsequential week carding only two losses before heading into singles. He’ll be remembered for his 15 footer at eighteen for his win on Sunday but it was only a win because Anirban Lahiri choked away a four footer.

Matt Kuchar F 0-2-1: It’s hard to imagine a steady player like Kuch earning a measly half a point. He looked out of sync all week and his singles loss to Grace was sad as Kuch went birdie free for the day.

Phil Mickelson A- 3-0-1: Phil the Thrill made his selection by Capt. Haas look like a no-brainer. He was solid with Zach Johnson and would have had four wins except for his bonehead move of playing two different balls and costing his team the win. His ‘A’ falls to an ‘A-‘ for his poor judgment.

Patrick Reed C 1-2-1: There was no “shooshing” from Reed this week as he couldn’t generate the fire that we saw from him at the Ryder Cup. And after leading Oosthuizen all day on Sunday he squandered his lead and settled for a half instead of the win.

Jordan Spieth B 3-2-0: The Golden Child played in every session and won with both DJ and Reed with his lone team loss coming form Oosthuizen & Grace. His Sunday loss to Marc Leishman was hard to take for the number one player in the world.

Jimmy Walker D- 1-3-0: Walker had a tough week with half a point coming on Thursday, losing the rest of the week and then getting beat by Steven Bowditch on Sunday…ouch.haas dad n son cup

Bubba Watson C- 2-1-2: Bubba played Dr. Watson to J.B.’s Sherlock Holmes in the first two rounds and it went swimmingly with two wins. But they were halved on Saturday early and beaten later in the day. His bonehead move of missing a four foot birdie at eighteen on Sunday after Thongchai Jaidee drove in the water only to save par cost half a point.

Captain Jay Haas: A-: Haas made his best moves long before his team teed off on Thursday. Mickelson’s pick looks brilliant now. J.B. Holmes played very well and his son Bill was standing on the eighteenth when the cup was decided. Not a bad week for Haas. But if not for a flubbed chip by Bae and a choked gimmie by Lahiri it would have been a different story.

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