Honours shared on second day

Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson

The United States will head into Saturday morning's foursomes leading the Internationals 7-5 after honours were shared in four-ball competition at a windblown Royal Melbourne on Friday.

With five points on offer in each of the sessions on Saturday, the morning foursomes and afternoon four-ball, the International team will be desperate to dominate as they look to close the gap ahead of Sunday's 12 singles matches.

As temperatures reached the low 30s and northerly winds gusted at close to 60km/h on Friday, players from both teams were tested to the limit all day, particularly on the super-fast, rock-hard greens as it was difficult for them to attack the pins.

The second match of the day summed up just how tough things were as Victorian Aaron Baddeley and Queenslander Jason Day went head to head with former world No.1 Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson.

The contest went the distance and it was Baddeley who ultimately proved the difference on an afternoon Day might prefer to forget, going some way to make up for his poor finish on Thursday to pull a point back for the Internationals.

But a day after giving the American team a lead that has not been challenged, Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson claimed their second point from as many attempts in the first match, prevailing 2 and 1 against South African Ernie Els and rising Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa.

And veterans Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk did likewise, finally getting past Queenslander Adam Scott and South Korean KT Kim 2 and 1 by winning the 17th hole, having earlier led by as many as three.

Sandwiched between those results for the Americans was the biggest victory of the day, the 4 and 3 hiding Matt Kuchar and Steve Stricker handed to Victorian Robert Allenby and South Korean YE Yang.

Victorian Geoff Ogilvy bounced back from his own late collapse on Thursday to combine with South Korean KJ Choi for a 1-up win over Bill Haas and Nick Watney, the win Choi's second in as many days after he and Scott thumped Woods and Stricker 7 and 6 the day before.

And South Africans Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel ensured the day would finish 3-3 when they finished off David Toms and Nick Watney 2 and 1 in the final match of the day.

Shot of the day honours sit went to Ogilvy after one of three Internationals with intimate knowledge of the famed sandbelt course put his team ahead by holing out from a bunker for a birdie at the 5th.

The wind made things so tricky that several times players sprinted to mark their balls on greens for fear of them moving again while others saw putts roll right off the other side of the putting surface when their attempts were only slightly offline, so slick were the greens.

Watson and Simpson led after three holes only to hand the advantage straight back but Watson's birdie at the 6th and a Simpson par at the 7th gave them a lead they would not surrender, even if Els and Ishikawa twice briefly closed to within one.

Woods' brilliant birdie putt at the 4th put him and Johnson ahead but Day's par at the 8th levelled proceedings and a Baddeley birdie at 13 gave his team a lead they doggedly clung to down the stretch.

Mickelson and Furyk went ahead at the 3rd and were on top by three after eight but saw their lead whittled to one with two to play thanks to some superb saves from Scott and Kim, before Furyk sealed the win with a birdie at 17.

Ogilvy's back-to-back birdies at the 5th and 6th holes put him and Choi on top but Haas birdies at the 9th and 11th holes tied it up before Ogilvy's par at 12 restored the International advantage and Ogilvy then closed it out with a par at 18.

A day after winning the final two holes with Dustin Johnson to halve his match with Baddeley and Day, Kuchar continued that momentum to be the key player as he and Stricker led by two through five and never saw their lead seriously challenged by Allenby and Yang.

The brightest note of the day for the Internationals was in the sixth match as Goosen won the 2nd and 3rd holes to give he and Schwartzel a lead they stretched to three at one point before hanging on later to beat Mahan and Toms.