Presidents Cup 2013: Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar lead Americans to 1-point lead after Day 1

The pairings and order are set for the second day at the 2013 Presidents Cup. Nick Price did not change a single pairing from Day 1 at Muirfield Village, but he did switch up the order a bit, deciding to anchor things with the duo of Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama.

American captain Fred Couples split up the first two groups from Thursday, placing Bill Haas with Hunter Mahan and Webb Simpson with Brandt Snedeker. Those are four of the more versatile and interchangeable guys on the American roster, with the other eight players pretty firmly locked into partnerships.

What looked like another American rout turned tense late at Muirfield Village, as the International team regrouped during a 90-minute weather delay to cut the deficit to just one point after the first six matches. It was ugly for the first couple hours, as they trailed in all six matches. But Nick Price’s team charged back late in the gloaming in Columbus. The Americans, led by Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar, hold a 3.5- to 2.5-point lead after six Four-ball matches.

Jason Day / Graham DeLaet vs. Hunter Mahan / Brandt Snedeker

We showed you earlier that Davis Love III had adopted an abandoned baby squirrel at the President’s Cup. It was adorable. I have spent most of my life dreaming about having a baby woodland creature hang out on me, and Davis Love III was living my dream while managing an international golf competition.

Somewhere along the line, this baby squirrel got into the hands of Lindsay Vonn, who tried to give the squirrel to Tiger Woods. The world’s No. 1 golfer was unappreciative.

The first of the six Four-ball matches to open the Presidents Cup has concluded, and the USA duo of Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar have put the first points on the board. Woods and Kuchar opened with a birdie, and a choreographed celebration, and they never relinquished that lead. It was a multi-hole cushion for much of the match, and then both Woods and Kuchar turned it on coming in on the back side to close it out on the 14th green, 5 & 4. It was a dominant performance for the new duo, and it looks like Woods has his partner for the rest of the weekend and the next four two-man sessions.

For a majority of the afternoon, it looked like the American side would take a big lead after the first six matches. They led each match for almost a two-hour period, five of six American duos winning the first hole to instantly pounce. The International side lobbied to play under the Four-ball format the first day, a game they had traditionally played to a draw with the US squad. It was an attempt to avoid that first day hole, which has plagued the Internationals in recent blowout USA wins. The Foursomes format has not been kind to the International group, and the first day hole resulted in a constant chase to try and catch-up. The change in strategy looked like it would end with the same result, a big American lead at the start of the week.

A wayward Keegan Bradley drive resulted in one of the scarier moments you’ll see at a golf tournament. Bradley’s drive on the 14th hole at Muirfield Village went right up the left rope line, and directly hit a fan in what looked like the head. The fan toppled to the ground instantly:

Golf Channel did report that the fan was doing “okay” -- a relative term -- and that Bradley did meet with him to make sure all was well.

It’s getting late in the day during the first session at the Presidents Cup, and things are getting weird for Team USA. Golf Channel cut to a shot of assistant captain Davis Love III sitting in a golf cart monitoring his team, typing on his phone, and ... holding some sort of small varmint on his lap.

Golf Channel’s Jimmy Roberts then went to work, and reports on the ground indicate that DLIII is now caring for a baby squirrel and even took it back to the team room during the weather delay. Apparently, the infant squirrel fell out of a tree and now Love, tony Sea Island resident, is rolling around with the little wild animal on his lap. It’s all extremely bizarre:

After a storm delay that lasted almost 90 minutes, the International side is back on the course and attempting to mitigate the damage from an early whitewash at the Presidents Cup. The Internationals took a 1-up lead on the first hole in the first match of the day, but it was the only International lead of all the six matches and it lasted just one hole.

The board was all red through a majority of the first two hours of Four-ball, but Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen did get things all square against Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley before the horn sounded. But still, there was no International lead on the board.

This is from earlier in the day at the Presidents Cup, where Jason Dufner looks really worried and interested in what his International opponents are doing.

Just getting a quick bite and some energy before he heads out for a grueling match? Enhance.

The Presidents Cup is in a delay at Muirfield Village, with lightning and heavy rain hitting the Columbus area just before 3 p.m. ET. The PGA Tour evacuated both teams from the course, which means it won’t be a particularly brief interruption.

The teams loaded in golf carts, but they were apparently a couple short at the seventh hole, where Tiger Woods and Matt Kuchar were stopped in the middle of their match.

Come celebrate the Presidents Cup being in Columbus! ... By having a band trample all over your lovely fairways. Hooray!

At least that one dude is catching a baton underleg-style. That dude knows how to party.

It’s no secret that golfers are universally terrible at celebrating, particularly connecting on jubilant high-fives. Tiger Woods, maybe the greatest player ever, is no exception to this rule and has had plenty of his own celebratory misfires and notoriously dorky reactions.

It appears Tiger and Matt Kuchar are taking the spontaneity out of it this week when they’re partnered at the Presidents Cup. The two performed this awkward choreographed number after a birdie on the first hole of the day put them 1-up over Angel Cabrera and Marc Leishman:

We’ve already seen rich, powerful men like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in pose last night at the Presidents Cup opening ceremonies.

On Thursday, the former most powerful man in the world, George W. Bush joined them on the first tee. There were hugs, five-stars, and smiles to go around. And maybe a quick chat with Phil about his onerous taxes.

Jack Nicklaus still believes Tiger Woods will win at least 19 major championships before he hangs up his spikes but the Golden Bear, appearing Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” was not exactly effusive in his most recent role as Nostradamus.

“Well, I didn’t say I was confident [Woods would break his record of 18 major titles],” Nicklaus said from his Muirfield Village Golf Club, site of this week’s Presidents Cup. “I just expect him to.”

The South African duo of Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen started their week in Columbus with a barber totally butchering their hair. It was an ugly turn for a purported team-building activity, some half-hearted ugly buzz cuts the salvaged remains.

So on Thursday, shortly before they teed off in this nerve-wracking intense competition for international supremacy, the two showed up thusly:

The United States has won seven of the last nine Presidents Cup matches and will be going for another victory starting Thursday at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.

With over 25 hours of golf coming between Thursday and Sunday, fans will be able to catch all the action online through NBC and Golf Channel’s LiveExtra service. Coverage starts Thursday morning at 11:30 a.m.

As you’d expect in an event dominated by the Americans, Team USA is an overwhelming favorite to win their fifth straight Presidents Cup. The American side is loaded, and it’s perhaps their best team top-to-bottom that they have ever fielded in this event. The International team cannot come close to matching the depth of Fred Couples’ group, and all the stats back it up: the average ranking of the American team player is three times better than the average world ranking of the International team player. The season stats also indicated that the Americans have been significantly better tee-to-green all year, and up on the putting surface as well.

So all the indicators -- statistics, trends, history, home course setting -- are an advantage to the U.S. side, which has lost only once in nine iterations of this event. According to Jeff Sherman, the Americans are at -360 to clinch the cup while the Internationals are +300. Bovada lists the USA side as a -400 favorite.

The Presidents Cup is back in the United States on Thursday and the U.S. goes for its fifth consecutive win in the event. The Comcast sister network of Golf Channel and NBC will have the coverage this week, picking up from their FedExCup coverage last month to anchor golf’s fall season. The two team cup events and the FedExCup may be the crown jewels of their golf coverage going forward with the U.S. Open making the jump to FOX.

The United States rolled the International team in 2011, 19-15, in Melbourne, Australia, and has won four straight since the two teams tied in 2003. The Melbourne setting led to some odd TV times, but the schedule this week falls right into your standard tournament finishes around 6 p.m. each day.