Greg Norman and Fred CouplesAndrew Brownbill
MELBOURNE - Internationals captain Greg Norman has shaken up the pairings that suffered a stunning collapse at the Presidents Cup on Thursday, as U.S. counterpart Fred Couples opted to separate Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker following their shock loss.
Having led in five of the six opening day foursomes, the Internationals slumped to a 4-2 deficit at the end of play as the defending champions United States ramped up the pressure over the closing holes at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
Australia's Adam Scott, whose partnership with KJ Choi destroyed Woods and Stricker 7&6, will team up with Kim Kyung-tae after the South Korean and his compatriot YE Yang were humbled 6&5 by Hunter Mahan and David Toms.
Retief Goosen, blasted by Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk 4&3 with Robert Allenby, will partner fellow South African Charl Schwartzel against Mahan and Toms in one of six fourballs matches on the second day.
Schwartzel's Thursday partner Geoff Ogilvy joins up with Choi against Bill Haas and Nick Watney, while Yang has been lined up with Robert Allenby against Stricker and Matt Kuchar.
Norman conceded that Kim and Yang were of little help to each other as they struggled to place their approaches and toiled on Royal Melbourne's flint-hard greens.
"Basically (Kim) was a little bit off his lines with his tee shots, because Y.E. (Yang) wasn't too sure, either," Norman told reporters.
"With the weather conditions coming in [Friday] Adam was very happy to take the lead and to bring somebody under his wings who has never played the golf course in those conditions," Norman said, referring to northerly winds forecast before a possible thunderstorm on Friday.
Officials have moved the start times for Friday's matches up by two hours in hopes of avoiding the bad weather.
Woods has been paired with Dustin Johnson against Jason Day and Aaron Baddeley in the second match after suffering a colossal 7&6 defeat with Stricker, the 14-time major champion's heaviest loss at a Presidents Cup.
The loss was a massive turnaround in fortunes after the pair routed the Internationals in 2009, winning all four of their matches in a tournament first in San Francisco.
Couples said the move was pre-ordained.
"We were going to do that Tuesday and Wednesday, we were going to put Tiger with Dustin in best-ball, and that's what we did and we stuck to that," he said.
"But Tiger and Steve did not play well [Thursday] Adam and K.J. were much better."
The second day's opening match is a repeat of the first one on Thursday, pitting Americans Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson against South Africa's Ernie Els and Japan's Ryo Ishikawa.
The U.S. pairing opened the event with a 4&2 win and will be hoping to give Couples a similar start on Friday.
The Americans are bidding for their fourth successive Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, the venue of their only loss in 1998.