AP

A marathon Saturday at the Presidents Cup saw 10 points up for grabs as the players had to deal with Royal Melbourne in some interesting conditions.

The storm that caused play to be moved up on Friday lingered into Saturday, leaving both the Americans and Internationals learning how to play the same course in different conditions for the third straight days.

Interestingly enough, by all accounts the rainy weather made the course easier. The greens had been the story over the first few days. Putts would roll out much further than players expected, however, on Saturday the soggy conditions allowed the players more control on their approaches as well as the ability to be more aggressive on the greens.

In short, Royal Melbourne’s teeth had been taken right out of her mouth, to the advantage of the Americans.

Going out in the early morning Down Under, the Americans grabbed four of the five possible points in the foursomes matches, putting International captain Greg Norman in a bigger hole than he was expecting.

The stand-out pairing of Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson went out and defeated Robert Allenby and Geoff Ogilvy 3 & 2 in the first match of the day to set the tone for the US as they had the first two days previous.

Ernie Els and Ryo Ishikawa secured the lone point for the Internationals in the second match, defeating Matt Kuchar and Bill Haas 1-up. Ishikawa can flat roll the rock. He’s been really impressive.

The rest of the foursome matches were not relatively close. Hunter Mahan and David Toms got back in their groove defeating Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel 5 & 4. Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk concluded their partnership with a third-straight win, topping Aaron Baddeley and Jason Day 2 & 1.

Even Tiger Woods got in on the action with new partner Dustin Johnson. Despite Woods and Johnson seemingly unable to hole a putt, they were able to avenge Woods’ first day loss to Adam Scott and KJ Choi, 3 & 2, giving the Americans another full point.

After the morning matches, captain Fred Couples and the Americans enjoyed an 11-6 lead of Norman and the Internationals. Norman was forced to put the pedal down in the afternoon four-balls to ensure the Internationals had a chance in the Sunday singles.

Still, the Americans seemed perfectly content to put the eighth installment of the Presidents Cup in the bag getting out to some early leads. However, the Internationals buckled down and kept all of the matches within striking distance.

With Watson and Simpson out first for the fourth-straight session, Goosen and Schwartzel sent a message that the rooks weren’t going to roll through their team matches unscathed. The Internationals got to as many as 4-up through 11 holes. The Americans tried to put some pressure on late in the round, winning two holes, but by then it was too little, too late and the Internationals drew first blood in the afternoon, 2 & 1.

Mahan kept to his script, except this time with Bill Haas as his partner, taking care of the impressive team of Jason Day and Aaron Baddeley. Day and Baddeley always seem to find themselves in a dog fight and despite their stellar play, it’s seemed as if they’ve had bad luck in their draw. That was the case in this match, as well.

A back-and-forth match throughout, 10 of the 17 holes played were won outright. Day made a huge putt on the 17th for birdie that forced Hunter Mahan to make a birdie putt of his own on top of Day to end the match and draw a very un-Hunter Mahan-like celebration in the 2 & 1 win.

The other three matches were just as intense with all of them going the full 18 holes.

Woods and Johnson teamed up again in what many expected would be a walk-over of YE Yang and KT Kim, but Kim showed some signs of life, sinking putts and shocking the Americans in a 1-up win.

Steve Stricker, who sat out the early session, paired back up with Matt Kuchar in the afternoon four-balls against Choi and Ogilvy. The Americans took an early 1-up lead with a rare birdie from Kuchar on the par-3 5th hole, but the Internationals won two of the next six to switch the flag from the American side to the Internationals. With the US unable to get a hole, the Internationals hung on to win 1-up.

In the last match of the day, Jim Furyk was paired with Nick Watney after his regular partner, Phil Mickelson, opted to sit out the afternoon matches to be fresh for Sunday singles. No matter. Furyk and Watney took on the capable duo of Els and Scott. Watney showed his mettle early on winning the fourth and fifth holes with birdies, giving the US an early 2-up lead.

The Big Easy answered in similar fashion with back-to-back wins on the ninth and 10th holes to square the match. Watney kept his solid play going, birdieing two of the next four holes to put the US 2-up once again with four holes to play. Once again, Els answered with a birdie on the 15th to put the match in the balance, down one hole.

The Internationals couldn’t get another birdie putt to drop in the final three holes and settled for a loss to the Americans, 1-up.

After the dust settled, the Americans added to their lead on Saturday going 6-4 in all the matches, moving to 13-9 overall. With the Americans as the reigning Cup holders, they only need 17½ points to retain the cup, meaning only 4½ of the 12 matches need to go the Americans way.

The Internationals aren’t dead and buried, but their clinging to life by a thread. The Sunday singles, as always, should be quality entertainment.