Presidents Cup 2015: Schedule, pairings announced for Saturday’s matches

The International team made the Presidents Cup a legit competition heading into the weekend with their strong Friday session in Korea. After the opener on Thursday, it looked like the US would cruise to another non-competitive laugher -- the kind of outcome that has plagued this event and had some Internationals earlier this week questioning if they should keep putting it on their schedule. This may turn into a blowout again, but we at least have some intrigue going into the final three sessions thanks to a 3.5 to 1.5 winning four-ball session on Friday. The American advantage is now just one point.

Saturday features the only double session of the cup. The Ryder Cup, in contrast, plays double sessions on Friday and Saturday before the Sunday singles. This is another area where International captain Nick Price succeeded in his lobbying efforts to trim down the amount of matches and points, allowing him to hide some of his weaker players against the much deeper American roster. Saturday’s sessions now just have four matches each, comparable to the Ryder Cup. They used five each for a full 10-point day.

There’s more strategy and consideration that goes into these four-match sessions. You’re benching four players and with it now a 1-point game, the order is critical. American captain Jay Haas will keep two of his teams together and send them out for the third straight session. He’ll also put two new pairings out in the morning foursomes. Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes are the only America duo to get two full points out of the first two days so they had to stay in the lineup.

Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson are the most high-profile American pairing, a seemingly perfect combination. But they both played poorly on Friday and could not make a putt. Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen wiped them out, 4&3, in the most lopsided match of the session. Now they go back to the format, alternate-shot foursomes, in which they dominated on Thursday. It’s definitely a pairing that would be favored in every match, regardless of their record, and they’ll draw the International’s top man, Jason Day. That means No. 1 and No. 2 are up against each other in the anchor match, which should be pretty fun to watch late Friday night in prime time.

Foursomes is the format that the Internationals have struggled with most over the years (41-65 record in foursomes, 54.5-51.5 in four-ball). It continually puts them in a hole that gives away the Cup again and again. It’s not difficult to see why -- the alternate-shot format is the most significant departure from what these pros usually play on tour. The Internationals represent multiple continents and countries with language and culture barriers that can be an obstacle when so much strategy is required. They also play the format every two years, while most of the USA players get reps in during the Ryder Cup, too. An even split 2-2 session would be a success for captain Price, who is keeping his 2-0 Grace-Oosthuizen team together but sending three new pairings out after the South Africans leadoff.

Here’s your match board for Saturday:

UPDATE: Inclement weather in Korea pushed everything back one hour over there Saturday morning, so the first match will not tee off until 7:05 p.m. ET Friday back in the States. The second session will be affected and darkness could become an issue later in the day if there are further delays.