The Americans won three matches and the International side took two to bring the score even at 5 1/2-all after the first 11 matches. There will be five more Foursome matches this afternoon.

What was most pleasing to United States Captain Jack Nicklaus, though, was the fact that his team didn't let anything slip away as they had in the opening Foursomes. The Americans led in four of those matches through 13 holes and only ended up getting 1 1/2 points.

"We had some matches that were not to our liking yesterday because we didn't finish them off," Nicklaus said. "Today they guys finished off what they had to do. Gary's guys did the same."

Only one match went to the 18th hole on Friday as compared with three on Thursday. And in that one, to use a football analogy the rabid Florida fan, Chris DiMarco, would appreciate, he and Justin Leonard bent but didn't break in their match with Vijay Singh and Nick Price.

The two Americans were 3 up after 14 holes before Singh won the 15th with a par and the Americans conceded a birdie to Price at No. 17. But DiMarco two-putted for birdie on the 18th hole that had been the Americans' nemesis on Thursday to preserve the 1-up win.

Jim Furyk and Jay Haas set the tone for the Americans when they made 10 birdies in their first 13 holes to beat Stuart Appleby and Adam Scott in a 6 and 5 rout.

Robert Allenby and the rock-solid Mike Weir only trailed once in their match with David Toms and Phil Mickelson, winning 3 up when the Canadian rolled in a 26-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole. The loss was the second straight for the American team that had played so well together at the Ryder Cup last year.

"It was a little ham and egg," said Weir, who is 2-0 at The Presidents Cup this year. "We both played fairly well. I think in the middle of the round Robert made some close shots. I was able to free up my putter a little bit and I was able to make some putts."

Tim Clark is certainly the less heralded of the three South Africans on the International Team but on Friday he played like he belonged as he and Ernie Els beat Tiger Woods and Charles Howell III.

Clark made birdie on the first hole and was clearly not imtimidated by the pairing against the game's No. 1 player and one of its most promising young stars. He had seven birdies and Els called his 27-year-old partner a "great weapon."

"It was great to watch from my side," said Els, who has won both his matches. "I think I helped him on three holes all day. He was on fire from the first hole putting for birdies and really putting Tiger and Charles under pressure from the get-go-go. He's got a great future ahead of him."

Clark felt he was able to be more aggressive because he had a partner he could count on. "I was pretty comfortable, knowing I had Ernie as my partner," Clark said of the No. 3 player in the world.

Davis Love and Kenny Perry are the only Americans to have won two matches, beating Retief Goosen and K.J. Choi 2 up. The two did trail briefly, unlike in their opening match, but took the lead they would not relinquish when Perry made back-to-back birdies at Nos. 8 and 9.

"Kenny is playing well, and I've got a lot of confidence in what he is doing," Love said. "Even if I hit a bad shot, I know he's going to make a good one. I made some good putts and hit some good shots when I needed to, but all in all, he played really good all day and kept us in the mwatch all the way."