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Kenny Perry

Perry and Love III cruised to a 4&2 win over International rookies Tim Clark and Peter Lonard as the match finished 3½ - 2½ in favour of the home side.

This despite the Americans taking the lead in five of the six matches midway through the day.

Speaking ahead of Friday morning's five four-ball matches, Perry said the team were desperate to give Nicklaus the honor of lifting a Presidents Cup trophy.

Nicklaus has already captained a US Presidents Cup team, but was the victim of the Internationals only win at the biennial event at Royal Melbourne in Australia in 1998,.

"At the team meeting, he said "This is my last event"; meaning as a player or a captain," said Perry.

"That inspired me. I wanted to win - I would rather win this for him than anything because this is probably it for him."

"Hearing him say that motivated us all."

Nicklaus has been conspicuous by his absence in the early stages of the competition, opting to spend most of the time recovering from flu-symptoms in his hotel room.

"He was really sick on Wednesday, We haven not seen a lot of Jack, he has been in his room mostly."

He was out today (Thursday) on his golf cart just kind of getting around a little bit. It was nice to see him out today feeling a bit better."

"But we all know what he feels and what he's thinking. We all know what he wants us to do."

"We just need to do our job and go out there and play better tomorrow (Friday).

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