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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

MONTREAL, Canada -- Woody Austin may have provided quintessential "SportsCenter" moment, but the International Team clearly had the day to remember on Friday during the four-ball competition at The Presidents Cup.

Mike Weir and his International teammates had all their ducks (and gulls) in a row on Friday. (Cannon/WireImage)

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• Friday's scores • Friday's recaps • Saturday at a glance

While Austin was doing his best Jacques Cousteau imitation in the lake beside the 14th green at Royal Montreal, the rest of the Americans might as well have been treading water, and their International counterparts took full advantage.

Sparked by Vijay Singh's and Stuart Appleby's lopsided 5-and-4 victory over Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk, the Nos. 1 and 3 players in the world, the International Team narrowed the gap to 7-5 entering Saturday's double round of match play.

"It certainly was a very exciting day and the thing that I'm so pleased about, at least after yesterday, we are now going to the third round where the matches are alive," International Captain Gary Player said.

"I would not like to have seen the matches either way just run away from each other. Now it is a match, and very exciting."

In stark contrast to their performance in the opening foursomes, the Internationals picked up four wins and a halve, while losing just one match on Friday. The U.S. had dominated the previous day, winning five matches and halving the other.

"We just wanted to get some points up there," Singh said. "I mean, five points down on the first day, our morale wasn't very good at the dinner last night. I think we all kind of drank a little too much and tried to drown our sorrows, or some of us did, anyway.

"We came out strong today. We wanted to put some points up there early and give the guys coming behind something to look up to, and give them some sort of a boost."

Mission accomplished. Singh and Appleby, playing in the second match of the afternoon, were 11 under while the Americans shot 5 under. For the two Internationals, who had lost to Woods and Jim Furyk twice in 2005, the victory was sweet.

"It was a good statement in one respect, I mean, because Tiger, obviously he's playing unbelievable golf, and Jim is never out of the hole," Singh said. "So for us to beat them, and it was a good beat; at the end of the day, it was a point that really mattered.

Singh set the tone when he chipped in for birdie on the first hole -- which Player said was "psychologically very important." The International duo never trailed in the match, and Singh went on to win two more holes with birdies and a fourth with an eagle.

Turns out, the loss was the worst Woods has ever absorbed in team match play competition.

"If you look at it, 5 and 4, it looks very comfortable, but we had to work on every shot out there," Singh said. "You know, it wasn't easy at all. We're just lucky to come up ahead I guess this time."

Retief Goosen and Angel Cabrera provided the next point for the Internationals. Playing against Phil Mickelson and Hunter Mahan in the day's opener, Cabrera's hot putter put the Internationals 2 up early before the Americans rallied.

Goosen took over as the Americans began to come back, matching Mickelson's 40-footer for eagle at the 12th hole and later Mahan's birdie at No. 17 with the match all square. Cabrera, though, finished it off with a 12-footer for birdie on the 18th hole.

Mike Weir, Canada's favorite son, continued his solid play in the day's third match, teaming with Ernie Els for a 3-and-1 victory over Charles Howell III and Zach Johnson. The 2003 Masters champion won the seventh and eighth holes with birdies and the 11th with a par as the Internationals built a 3-up advantage and never looked back.

"We had a good talk this morning," Weir said. "We have 12 great players on our team, and we knew yesterday was a little bit of an aberration. It was closer actually than what the score indicated. We felt we had four matches go to 18 and just didn't turn our way.

"We knew if we stuck to our guns today and got off to a good start, (it would be work in our favor). And Vijay and Stuart set the tone winning a good match today, and kind of getting us some momentum. I think you can feed off that. I think all of the guys kind of fed off that, and it was great golf today."

Two of the final three matches reached the 18th hole, including the one that featured the water-logged Austin, who teamed with David Toms and rolled in birdie putts on the final three holes to halve with Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini.

"The way the day went, it was tough on everybody," said Austin, who fell face-first into the lake after hitting his second shot from the bank of the 14th hole. "They came out and played really good. We stayed with them for most of the day, played well ourselves, and then we just played a couple of bad holes and got down.

"But it shows the character of the team. We fought really hard and we got our half point, which we thought was going to be huge in the whole scheme of it. So we're ecstatic about a half point."

Scott Verplank, who teamed with Steve Stricker for the lone U.S. point in a 2-and-1 victory over K.J. Choi, thought Austin's play was inspiring.

"I think Woody, his effects were far reaching, not only he played great golf, I watched the last few holes, it was pretty spectacular," Verplank said.

U.S. Captain Jack Nicklaus, who thought his team's play overall was "scratchy," agreed. "Here he is, he takes a dive into a lake and then holes three straight putts. He's amazing. He's been terrific so far," he said.

Verplank and Stricker, who finished second in the inaugural FedExCup this year, never trailed in their match. Stricker birdied the first hole, but the match was squared twice before he finished it off with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17.

"As the day started to unfold, you could look at the board and see that the direction of the day was going in favor of the International Team," Stricker said. "I was looking at it, and I'm sure Scott was, too, in our match and we felt it was very important to try to sneak out a half a point at least, if not a full.

"But we played well together. We supported each other. When I was out of the hole, he would pick me up and vice versa. So we made a good team today and we were fortunate enough to get a point."

Nicklaus didn't tamper too much with his Saturday Foursomes pairings, keeping Mickelson with Austin, Stricker with Mahan and Lucas Glover with Verplank. The three teams picked up 2 1/2 points on Thursday.

Woods and Furyk, who halved their alternate-shot match in 2005, are also playing Saturday morning, as are Toms and Johnson. Stewart Cink and Charles Howell III will sit out the foursomes competition.

Player opted to keep four teams together in Appleby and Goosen, Immelman and Sabbatini, Singh and Weir and O'Hern and Ogilvy. He's put Scott and Els, who won a Foursomes match in 2003, together, as well, while sitting Choi and Cabrera out.