Ryder Cup 2012: Tiger Woods benched for Saturday’s Foursomes

The United States got off to a strong start in the 2012 Ryder Cup on Friday and they will attempt to continue that strong play when Day 2 begins on Saturday. Like Friday, the teams will play four Foursome matches in the morning and then four Fourball matches in the afternoon. The Americans enter the second day of play with a 5-3 lead.

Unlike Friday, Tiger Woods will not be playing in the morning Foursome matches. The team of Woods and Steve Stricker will instead be replaced by Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson. Woods and Stricker played well at times on Friday, but lost both of their matches.

The Saturday morning matchups for Ryder Cup foursomes are out, and for the first time in his Ryder Cup career, Tiger Woods will be sitting out a session. The combination of Woods and Steve Stricker yielded two points to the Europeans on Friday, but Tiger really picked up his play in the afternoon and was one of the better players out on the course. He simply ran into the hottest player of the day in Nicolas Colsaerts. Captain Davis Love III wants his players rested for Sunday singles, so it’s not surprising that Woods is sitting down. His struggles in the alternate-shot format on Friday morning likely aided Love’s decision to keep him on the bench for the same session on Saturday.

Trailing 5-3, Jose Maria Olazabal is sending out his full arsenal Saturday morning, looking get back into it and finish the day level. The power pairing of Ian Poulter and Justin Rose will lead things off against the steamrolling duo of Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson. Olazabal’s decision to keep Poulter, a renowned Ryder Cup star, out of the Friday afternoon four-ball matches came under scrutiny. But he’ll lean on him to start things right out of the gate. Something has to give in that first match of two pairings who have had nothing but success.