6pm UPDATE:

Tiger Woods suffered his worst defeat in US colours since he began playing Presidents and Ryder Cups back in 1997, he and Steve Stricker being on the wrong end of a 7&6 thrashing from the International pair of KJ Choi and Adam Scott in the ''Steve Williams grudge match'' today.

The shock result marked an extraordinary day at Royal Melbourne in which Aaron Baddeley horribly chunked his three-wood drive at the final hole to put teammate Jason Day deep in the trees - and help give the Americans the hole for a halved match.

Baddeley and Day had been three up after 11 holes and only needed to halve one of their last two holes to win. They bogeyed both after poor shots from Baddeley, who also missed the 17th green from the middle of the fairway. Their defeat will leave the Internationals feeling deflated going into day two and give the Americans a spring in their step.

The home side will also be rueing Geoff Ogilvy's misdirected three-wood tee shot at the 18th hole into deep rough - having seen American Nick Watney moments earlier also push his drive into the rough - when a half-decent drive, and par, would have won the match.  

Despite the poor showing of their star player, the Americans eked out a 4-2 lead after the opening six foursomes matches - yet another series of alternate shot matches where they've had the better of the Internationals.

Woods' representative career covers about 60 Presidents and Ryder Cup matches and until today his worst result was a 6/5 beating by Lee Westwood and Luke Donald last year in the Ryder Cup, again paired with Stricker.

The horrible result capped a tense and fraught afternoon, as Woods and Williams, his former caddie, had to spend four hours in each other's company, while barely looking at each other - let alone acknowledging each other's presence. 

On the first tee, they shared what was not exactly call a warm, hale-fellow-well-met handshake - more like a glare that involved a touching of hands.

They shook hands  - as protocol dictates - but there were no smiles, no patting of shoulders, in fact no warmth whatsoever.

The ill-feeling that has marked their relationship since Woods sacked Williams this year after a long and successful partnership that yielded 13 major championships - and culminated in the caddie's recent description of the former world No.1 as a 'black arsehole' - is clearly a long way from being smoothed over. 

Their match was the sixth and final one to hit off, and the frosty start preceded an extraordinary contest.

In the foursomes format, Scott and Woods teed off on the same holes - the first, third, fifth and so on - and the Australian clearly had the better of that duel, driving straight and true, while Tiger put his teammate in the back bunker on the third, and in the heavy rough on seven, leading to losses on both holes.

In fact, Scott was clearly the standout International player for the day, barely missing a shot.

At the turn, Woods and Stricker were 5 down, and the match ended on the 12th green when Choi holed a putt that gave the Internationals their fourth birdie of the day. Stricker and Woods managed none and were the only team not to win a hole all day.

The famed Royal Melbourne greens were running at least 13 on the stimpmeter and creating havoc, cruelling any shots that happened to end above the hole. Dustin Johnson put Matt Kuchar on the back fringe of the par-three third and Kuchar, after looking at his shot for an eternity, proceeded to putt the ball completely off the front of the green, it finally coming to rest about 40 metres from the pin.

At the same hole, KJ Choi also had a putt from above the cup and, with his back to the hole, aimed at least 90 degrees away from the hole and managed to lag it down to 20cms, a brilliant effort.

Tiger had racked a 5-0 record at the 2009 Presidents Cup and he and Stricker had teamed together in four matches for four wins. But Scott and Choi jumped to a four-up lead after seven holes as both Americans struggled with their games.

The foursomes format has been the undoing of the International team and their record in all matches gainst the US so far has been 33.5 - 50.5. But in the fourball, the format being used on Friday, they've fared much better, leading 45-39. 

The results for the six opening foursomes matches today were:

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

Among some early contenders for the Shot of the Day (and Howler of the Day):

-  Aaron Baddeley's drop-kicked three-wood at the final hole, which looped into the right trees.

- KJ Choi from the back of the 3rd green, maybe six metres from the cup, had his back to the hole as he negotiated a magnificent putt to gimme distance.

- Webb Simpson's long iron from the fairway bunker on the par-four 9th, again to within gimme distance.

- Ryo Ishikawa banging in long putts for half at both the 8th and 9th holes.

- Els' early bunker play and chipping was sublime: his chip from the hollow 30 metres short of the 3rd green spun back to a metre from the hole, and his bunker shots at the 4th set up a birdie, and 10th a hard-won par.