When the dust settles on this Presidents Cup, Greg Norman will be left to rue his faith in the two Melbourne guys whom he chose as his captain's picks.

Aaron Baddeley and Robert Allenby delivered a total of 1.5 points from nine matches, a return so paltry that there is some argument to say it was the difference between defeat and victory for the International team. The pair might have had the pedigree around Royal Melbourne but, this week, neither the form nor the fortitude.

In the end, Norman's Internationals halved the final day's singles, 6-6, with Baddeley and Allenby both badly beaten, even though their first four players out today - KT Kim, Charl Schwartzel, Ryo Ishikawa and Geoff Ogilvy - won their matches and gave the team the perfect start.

A distinct buzz swept around the course as each success was shown on the giant screens and the improbable target of 8.5 singles wins appeared fleetingly within reach. 

But Norman was saddled with too many players out of form, among them Jason Day, YE Yang, Ernie Els and the two Victorians, and the back half of the team collapsed badly. Day was beaten 5&3, Els 4&3, Allenby 7&5, Baddeley 4&3 and Yang, in the final group, 2 down.

With their 19-15 victory, the United States continued their brilliant record in this biennial event, nothing up their seventh win (and a tie) from nine editions. In truth, they adapted better to the fickle weather this week than the Internationals, something that was certainly not the case in 1998.

And, of course, the Internationals' nemesis - the foursomes format - again rose up and bit them on the arse. Their record of 3-8 in the alternate shots continued a long record of underwhelming performances in that antiquated form of the game.   

Back on October 19, I wrote a column on BPL criticising Norman's selection of Allenby as one of his two discretionary picks. He had come off only a middling year on the US PGA Tour and his putting, as everyone knows, is now a very nervy, dicey proposition - not the kind of handicap any player needs coming into a Royal Melbourne tournament.

Allenby's record at the time of his selection was an unflattering 8-14-2 after five appearances, which meant he'd won 8, drawn 2, and lost 14 - or gained his team nine points out of a possible 24. Now that record is nine points out of 28.

Thre's really no way to put a positive spin on that kind of record.

Today, he bogeyed the first, came up horribly short on the fourth after a good drive and then chunked his chip into the bunker, to fall two down to David Toms. His body language as he left the green spoke volumes, even though several blokes in the crowd shouted out encouragement; here was a man almost totally bereft of confidence.

He was five over par when the match ended on the 13th green.

Badds' form ran hot and cold, just like the weather. Paired with Jason Day on Thursday, they scorched around the first 15 holes and it seemed as though they'd both be set for a huge week.

But Baddeley is such a confidence player, that when he botched the final two holes in the foursomes, to gift the Americans half a point, the wind slowly leaked out his balloon, notwithstanding a brave fourball win on Friday.

In his defence, he ran into a red-hot Tiger Woods today and better players than Badds have stumbled at that particular hurdle. 

On the positive side, the Internationals were brilliantly served by Geoff Ogilvy and Charl Schwartzel, two nerveless and steely competitors, who returned 3.5 points from their five matches and both won their singles today. KJ Choi and Retief Goosen finished with three points and, tellingly, the two late arrivals, KT Kim and Ishikawa, won two of their four matches.

That pair did Norman no favours by arriving late and having such a slipshod preparation - Kim with 27 holes' practice and Ishikawa with 18. But as soon as they got to know the course, its idiosyncracies and the pace of its greens, and began to develop some confidence, they were both irrepressible.

Kim knocked off the previously unbeaten Webb Simpson, one up, in the first match out. Ishikawa comfortably saw off Bubba Watson, 3&2.

Imagine what might have happened if they had arrived in Melbourne on Monday morning like everyone else.