Scott rewards Norman faith with Presidents Cup win

New York: Adam Scott rewarded International captain Greg Norman`s faith in him by teaming with Ernie Els to deliver a key victory over the United States in the opening foursomes at the Presidents Cup.

Norman had been criticised for using one of his two captain`s picks on Scott, whose world ranking plunged from number three to 65 during an 11-month tailspin in which he missed 10 of 15 cuts. But Scott and Els, also struggling to find form this season, combined for a 2&1 win over Americans Hunter Mahan and Sean O`Hair to secure one of two full points for the Internationals, who finished the day trailing 3-½ to 2-1/2. "Any victory is important but personally for me obviously it feels great," Scott told reporters. "More importantly we needed it for the team. We need some points and it was good to get one." Norman had acknowledged Scott`s lack of results but insisted all the struggling Australian needed was a vote of confidence. "When I saw him walking up to the tee, I could see the confidence in his stride," said Norman. "You could see the guy holding his shoulders back a little bit and was ready to go.” "Very proud of him, because he wasn`t hitting the ball that great on Tuesday; he`s figured it out.”"When the gun goes off, we love that pressure.” "We make sure something happens for our own game, for our own credibility and for the team, and that`s what happened today.” "I was very proud of him." Scott and Els went one up after the opening hole at Harding Park and never trailed in a close contest before clinching at least a half with a birdie at 16. "The way the match was going, it was who was going to make the first mistake," said Scott. "It was good to stick one in there on 16 and go two up with two to go to get at least a half (point) is a good feeling.”"We hit good shots at the right time, that`s important. A couple average ones, but it was pretty solid." "Honestly, I haven`t felt like that for a while.” "The juices were really flowing, I had one of those feelings that I used to have a lot of the time and to get it this morning was fun. I really enjoyed it. But it was hard work." Bureau Report