George, South Africa, Nov 19: Holders the United States are determined to win this week's Presidents Cup team competition against the internationals on behalf of their non-playing captain Jack Nicklaus.
Although the US have won three of the four editions of the Ryder Cup-style event, they were crushed by the internationals in Australia five years ago when Nicklaus made his debut as skipper.
''We want to make up for that,'' Davis Love III told a news conference yesterday after the first official practice rounds by both teams at Fancourt's links course.
''We felt like we left something on the table there (in Melbourne). It is disappointing for Jack to not have gotten a win in this event.''
Love, the 1997 US PGA champion, believes the American cause was not helped at Royal Melbourne Golf Club by the timing of the 1998 showdown.



''This time it's closer to our golfing season,'' he said. ''(In 1998) we were a little removed from our golf season in Australia (that year's Presidents Cup took place from December 11-13).



''But here in South Africa we're only a week away from the (season-ending) tour championship. Hopefully we can do a lot better here at Fancourt -- we owe it to Jack.''


Bureau Report