GOLF/Presidents Cup: The United States, the holders, are determined to win this week's Presidents Cup team competition against the Internationals on behalf of non-playing captain Jack Nicklaus.
Although the US have won three of the four editions of the Ryder Cup-style event, they were crushed by the Internationals in Australia five years ago when Nicklaus debuted as skipper.
"We want to make up for that," Davis Love said yesterday after the first official practice rounds at Fancourt's Links course in George, South Africa.
The US have won on all the three occasions the Presidents Cup has been held on American soil, but the Internationals tasted victory the first time the event was moved abroad - to Melbourne, in December 1998.
With Australian Peter Thomson back at the helm as non-playing captain for the Internationals, the host team hammered the Nicklaus-led Americans by 20½ points to 11½.
However, Love believes the American cause was not helped by the timing of the 1998 event.
"This time it's closer to our golfing season," he said. "(In 1998) we were a little removed from our golf season in Australia (that year's Presidents Cup took place from December 11th-13th).
"But here in South Africa we're only a week away from the (season-ending) Tour Championship. Hopefully we can do a lot better here at Fancourt - we owe it to Jack."
This year's competition, which will comprise 34 matches, starts tomorrow with the opening six foursomes encounters.The US won the 2000 edition 21½ to 10½ at Lake Manassas, Virginia.
