Phil Mickelson penalty contributes to U.S. collapse

Momentum swung to the International team at The Presidents Cup on Friday with just one United States win in the best-ball format, a round that included a bizarre penalty when Phil Mickelson changed the model of his golf ball.

The Internatonals won three of five matches and halved another to trim the United States lead to 51/2 to 41/2.

Mickelson and Zach Johnson rallied to halve their four-ball match with Jason Day and Adam Scott with a shot-making clinic, including a miraculous bunker shot for eagle by Mickelson on the back nine.

On the seventh hole, Mickelson informed officials he changed the model of Callaway ball he was playing. He was informed the violation would result in Johnson finishing the hole without his playing partner.

“Phil made a huge mental error, and then they compounded it a little bit. But if he hadn’t of been speeding, he wouldn’t have got a ticket. So I don’t have a problem with it,” US captain Jay Haas said.

Then on the eighth tee, officials convened and this time informed Johnson and Mickelson a “match adjustment” penalty would also apply, citing Rule 5-1 titled “One Ball.” Essentially, the twosome lost the seventh hole twice.

“That’s the part that’s very comforting and motivating is the fact that we fought,” Johnson said. “The unfortunate side is it sounds like we have a rules committee that truthfully didn’t know the entire rules but that’s unfortunate. Human error. We messed up and they messed up. It would have been nice to have some true finality to that but we didn’t.”

Head rules official Mark Russell called Jay Haas during play on the eighth hole to inform him the Match Committee in fact erred in the ruling and should not have applied the second penalty. “Under the rules … he could have continued the seventh hole,” the Match Committee said in a statement.

“It didn’t feel like a victory. But we — I, made a mistake, and I had never even heard of a match adjustment. That one’s new,” said Mickelson, who said he switched balls every other hole Thursday.

Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth lost 4 and 3 to Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace, Danny Lee and Sangmoon Bae (International) defeated Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker (U.S.) and Thongchai Jaidee/Charl Schwartzel (International) defeated Bill Haas and Chris Kirk (U.S.), 2 and 1.

Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes, who won Match 1 on Thursday, got the only victory for the U.S., beating Marc Leishman and Steven Bowditch. The Watson-Holmes pairing has never trailed in the 2015 Presidents Cup. Leading by one on the 18th, Holmes hit his tee shot 324 yards and sank a putt of 31 feet, 3 inches for an eagle three to seal the match.

This is the eighth time in 11 playings of the Presidents Cup that the United States enters the third day with a lead.

Spieth and Johnson, who won their opening match in Foursomes on Thursday, took a 1-up lead after No. 7, but lost the next hole when Oosthuizen made a 72-foot, 3-inch birdie putt from the front of the green.