The elephant in the room at this Presidents Cup is the desperate need for the International team to score a win. And the pachyderm is clunking around the place breaking all the good crockery and trying to prise open the fridge.

If this biennial tournament, the lovechild of the US Tour, is to survive and thrive it needs the potpourri of internationals - Koreans, South Africans, Japanese and Australians - to somehow gel as a team this week and cobble together a win at Royal Melbourne.

Although they'd never say it out loud, US Tour officials have become increasingly concerned that the one-sidedness of the competition since 1994 - with the US winning all but one of the eight editions - is affecting the event's viability and popularity.

It is threatening to become as lopsided as the early Ryder Cup competition when the US record over Great Britain and Ireland was a hopelessly lopsided 23-3. Then in 1983, commonsense prevailed, players from mainland Europe became eligible to play for a new Europe team, and a fantastic rivalry was born.  

So there was a good reason why Royal Melbourne was chosen as the venue for this ninth edition of the Cup: because the Internationals won 20.5 to11.5 here last time and it represents the best chance they have of recording their second victory. Better than anywhere in South Africa, Korea or Japan.

That is why we're here this week in Black Rock, Melbourne, Victoria. The idiosyncracies of Royal Melbourne are thought to play to the advantage of the five Australians in the team and the likes of the veteran South Africans Retief Goosen and Ernie Els, who holds the course record with a 60.

Norman understands as well as anyone the need for a morale boost: ''As a team, I think it's really important for us to win, no question. You can go back and look at the history of the Ryder Cup - I think the US drummed the UK team 24-2, something like that. And then when it was expanded to include Europe, it became really competitive - the Americans started to get challenged and get beat. That needs to happen in the Presidents Cup as well.'' 

But several things have happened since 1998 which mitigate against the Internationals' chances.

First, the Americans are here to win this time. Thirteen years ago, under the stewardship of Jack Nicklaus, the team was a ragtag bunch of individuals who didn't want to be here, who had a very foreign concept of what it meant to be part of a team and who - and apologies to Mr Nicklaus here - weren't terribly well led.

Jack had such faith in his players, who occupied as a group a considerably higher position in the world rankings than their opponents, that he basically opened the door to the team bus when it arrived at Royal Melbourne and said, 'you boys are the best players in the world; go out and do you your own thing'. 

Meanwhile, International team captain Peter Thomson and his assistant Wayne Grady had been busy getting their pairings organised, trying to team an Australian up with a Japanese or Paraguayan player (Carlos Franco) who knew little about the course. The pairing of Craig Parry with Japan's Shigeki Maruyama was to prove inspired.

Anyway, there was a sense of purpose and unity about Thomson's team, and when the north wind arived on Friday and blew the Americans completely off course, they understood that fate was on their side and their time had come.

Over in Camp America, there were apparently rumblings about the lack of direction coming from the team leadership. No pairings had been decided or practice shedule devised. 

And it is said several players confronted Nicklaus at the black tie dinner at Crown to ask him to take control of the situation and give the team more leadership.

This time around, US captain Fred Couples is switched on and ready to go and if the Americans lose, it won't be for lack of preparation.    

It is clear how good the morale is in the team, and how well they are gelling together. Just watching them play their practice round today showed that Couples' famous laid-back attitude had rubbed off on to the players and they genuinely semed to be having a good time. No-one has even mentioned the noted antipathy between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Second, Royal Melbourne - as we mentioned in these pages yesterday - is not the Royal Melbourne of old. It is quite a different proposition to the baked, fast-running course of yesteryear. While the greens ran at 12.8 on the stimpmeter today, there is a very little run on the fairways and that means the Americans can largely bomb away with impugnity.

So the home-ground advantage that helped Royal Melbourne secure the event - and upon which hopes of an upset result have been pinned - is actually a furphy. There is no advantage here to the Internationals at all.

And when one of their number - Japan's Ryo Ishikawa - arrived into Melbourne late today and has not actually played a round at Royal Melbourne, then any supposed edge they might have as a team has evaporated completely. 

It doesn't matter how precociously talented the 19-year-old Ishikawa is, Royal Melbourne is not a course you can simply rock up and play. One practice round is not enough and Norman is now left with the problem of who to pair with the Japanese to guide him through the opening-day foursomes.     

Many of us not involved in the US Tour are quietly hoping the 'home' side can spring a surprise this week as well but the early evidence would suggest Team Norman might be up against it, and the elephant might be running amok for a while yet.