The Presidents Cup match-up everyone was secretly hoping for - Tiger Woods vs Adam Scott (and his caddie Steve Williams) - will be played out on Thursday's opening morning of competition after both team captains decided they wanted the ill-will between Williams and Woods to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Woods and Steve Stricker were today named by US captain Fred Couples as his sixth and final pairing for the foursomes, and they will face Scott and Korea's KJ Choi representing the Internationals.

Both Couples and Norman said it was best the racially-based controversy which erupted after Williams' recent description of Woods, his former boss, as a ''black arsehole'' be confronted and put to bed as early in the competition as possible, rather than have it overshadow the rest of the week.

They both inisted there had been no collusion between the two teams to arrange the marquee pairing but Norman argued that it ''needed to be done'' for the sake of the tournament.

''We talked about it and said, OK, if we have to defuse anything and just get this over and done, wouldn't you rather do it sooner rather than later?'' Norman said.

''I think it's great for the tournament, a good thing that it's played out this way,'' he said. ''But I think at the end of the day, the guys in that last group will be consummate professionals and go out and play the game of golf ... in the right spirit of the competition.''

Couples said: ''I think it worked out awesome for everybody involved to have Adam and Tiger play.''

Williams had been on Woods' bag for 13 of the American's 14 major championship victories, as they formed one of the great partnerships in sport.

But their relationship soured during Woods' layoff from the game in 2010, after a sex scandal and then injury derailed the world No.1's career. Woods ended up sacking Williams early this year which infuriated the New Zealander who felt he'd been treated abominably after sticking by Woods during that tough period.

That was the background to Williams' remark last month at a sportsman's night when he was asked how good it felt to score his first US Tour victory with his new boss, Adam Scott. That provoked the 'black arsehole' reference about Woods.

So while apologies have been offered and accepted, the pair now get to face off for the first time in competition. It is a boon for the tournament in a perverse way because it will attract a blizzard of publicity and a whole raft of non-golfers to the telecast, and perhaps even the course itself.

The other pairing of interest is the Internationals' opening team of Ernie Els and Japan's Ryo Ishikawa, who will come up against Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson.

Ishikawa, 19, only arrived into Melbourne at 2.30pm on Tuesday, and had his first practice round this morning. Clearly, he is at something of a disadvantage to the other 23 players with such a limited preparation.

Norman walked around with him today to offer advice while Els has been chosen as a parter because he knows the course so well - his 60 in the 2004 Heineken Classic remains the course record - and his reputation as the Big Easy will hopefully help to soothe any nerves.

True to his cavalier self, Watson at his media conference today said he'd try to drive the green at the opening, 324-metre hole tomorrow - as long as the wind was coming from the right direction off the right.

Normally, such a bold gambit would only ever be attempted in the fourball format where you at least have a partner to lean on if your tee shot goes astray. But, no, Bubba said he's happily give it a lash and hope he didn't put Cup rookie, Simpson, in the trees or long hay beside the green.

For that reason alone, it will be worth tuning in to Nine's telecast.

The six matches to square off in Thursday's foursomes, from 1.05pm, are:

1. Ernie Els/Ryo Ishikawa (Int) v Bubba Watson/Webb Simpson (US)
2. Geoff Ogilvy/Charl Schwartzel (Int) v Bill Haas/Nick Watney (US)
3. Aaron Baddeley/Jason Day (Int) v Dustin Johnson/Matt Kuchar (US)
4. Retief Goosen/Robert Allenby (Int) v Phil Mickelson/Jim Furyk (US)
5. KT Kim/YE Yang (Int) v Hunter Mahan/David Toms (US)
6. Adam Scott/KJ Choi (Int) v Tiger Woods/Steve Stricker (US)

Foursomes is a format that has been the International team's Achilles heel at virtually every meeting since 1994. The  outmoded and archaic form of the game involves pairs playing the one ball and hitting alternate shots.

Apart from its popularity in pockets of England, where it's the game of choice on weekends to help speed up play, you'll be hard pressed to find foursomes played anywhere in the world with any regularity. It's as old-fashioned as whalebone corsets and horse-drawn carriages.

In 2009, the US beat the Internationals, 7-4, in their two sessions of foursomes. In Montreal in 2007, the US basically clinched the whole shebang with their foursomes play on the first two days, racking up an astonishing record of 10.5 to the Internationals' miserable 0.5 point. Other than that, the Internationals had the upper hand in the fourballs and singles.

''It's been a question we've asked ourselves on a continual basis,'' assistant captain Frank Nobilo said of the slow starts, and inability to get their head around alternate shots. ''We sort of get it by Friday or Saturday but by then we are playing catch up.''

It was Nobilo, of course, who set the Internationals on their path to victory in the opening-morning foursomes in 1998 when, paired with fellow-Kiwi Greg Turner against hot favourites David Duval and Mark O'Meara, he holed a 15-metre put down the hill on the final green. That secured a one-up victory and gave the Internationals the moment of inspiration they needed to record a memorable win.

He and Norman will hoping lightning strikes in the same place twice again tomorrow.