DUBLIN, Ohio - It's been a long road for Nick Price to the captaincy of the International Presidents Cup team.

Price on Tuesday was formally introduced as the captain for the 2013 Presidents Cup at Muirfield Village GC. The native of Zimbabwe will serve opposite Fred Couples, who will be the U.S. skipper for a third straight time after successful turns in 2009 and '11.

Price and Couples will be going head-to-head at Muirfield Village in 2013.

Photo by Getty Images

The affable Price, a three-time major champion, confirmed a story first reported in the Nov. 28, 2011 edition of Golf World Monday that he was offered the captaincy in 2007 for the '09 Presidents Cup at Harding Park in San Francisco. Price, however, turned it down so that longtime friend Greg Norman could serve first.

Norman, of course, remained captain for the 2011 matches in Melbourne, Australia.

"It was a two-fold, and maybe a three-fold, decision on my part," Price, 55, explained Tuesday afternoon at Muirfield Village. "First of all, that was back in '07 when they came to me, and that was my first year on the Champions Tour, and I wanted to play a little and concentrate on my game a bit.

Tiger Woods' successful swing through Australia provided evidence that the 14-time major champion is getting closer to finding the form that once dominated golf. In recent weeks, he's also showed he's regaining his stature off the course as well.

Fresh off clinching the winning point for the U.S. in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne, Woods sat down with CNBC's Darren Rovell to talk golf and business in an interview from Hobe Sound, Fla. on Monday. Despite a lengthy trip back from Down Under, Woods seemed upbeat with the status of his game and his brand.

Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images

"Well, golf wise it's gotten better. I went through a period there where i was struggling for a little bit. I was hurt. Wasn't able to practice. Was finally able to turn it around here with Sean. Things are now starting to progress. I played well in Australia. Really looking forward to my tournament next week out there in L.A.," Woods said. "Businesswise, everything's been good. So excited to be part of Fuse and what they can do for me as an athlete."

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Give them credit. A lot of it, too. The cosmopolitan International side certainly made the last day of the ninth Presidents Cup interesting at a bright and breezy Royal Melbourne. But only for a little while. The harsh truth is that this edition of the biennial contest was won and lost well before the closing series of 12 singles produced an eventual score of 19-15 in favor of the United States.

Down and under as early as day one, when they fell what proved to be irretrievably behind after halving two foursome matches they should have won, the four-nation Internationals battled to the end before giving up the fight. For the seventh time in its 17-year history, the trophy will be heading back to PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra.

As it turned out, the seemingly comfortable 13-9 edge with which the Americans started the final series was just too much to overcome. Needing an all-points rally, the same problem that had haunted the Internationals over all four days of the 34-game contest reared its head all over again: too many passengers; too few drivers.

Photo by Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

So it was that, even as the likes of K.T. (kinda terrific?) Kim, Charl Schwartzel, Ryo Ishikawa and Adam Scott quickly constructed what would be winning positions, the Internationals were left trying to hide too many "passengers."

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Attention Fred Couples. Might want to post on U.S. team bulletin board:

"Tomorrow is a really big day. There's 10 points on offer tomorrow. Could be 15-7 by the end of tomorrow."

So assessed Australia's Geoff Ogilvy Friday night as he and his International teammates girded for a long day Saturday at Royal Melbourne GC. Ogivly, of course, didn't say it would be a 15-7 score by sundown Saturday, after five foursomes and five four-ball matches are contested. Only that it could be.

Now it's up to Couples and his charges, leading 7-5 through two rounds of this ninth Presidents Cup, to see how close they can get to 15 points and put some distance between them and the determined home team, which managed to eke out a 3-3 split Friday in four-ball play on windswept Royal Melbourne. It takes 17 1/2 points to win the Presidents Cup, so the two sessions represent a huge opportunity for both sides.

"We know tomorrow is a big day for us and we know tomorrow the International side is going to come out gunning for us, try to get some momentum and gain ground heading into the singles," Phil Mickelson said. "It's a big day for us to play well."

Fortunately, for Team USA, all the pressure is on the Internationals, playing at home, trailing by two points and starved for its second win in this biennial tournament. First things first, though, and that's for Greg Norman and company to at least cut into the deficit.

Good news for Shark is that rain moved in as scheduled Friday night and a southwest wind will be back for very different -- and easier -- scoring conditions Saturday morning. Bad news is U.S. has 21 1/2 to 6 1/2 lead combined in last five sessions of foursomes play.

Here's how the morning shapes up in Oz:

Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson vs. Robert Allenby and Geoff Ogilvy
Melbourne boys, who won four-ball match together in '09, should have advantage when the winds shift out of southwest, the third straight day of different conditions. Maybe. But U.S. chaps on a roll and will rely again on Watson's 300-yard drives and roll.

Bill Haas and Matt Kuchar vs. Ernie Els and Ryo Ishikawa
International duo wanted one more crack at playing together after 0-2 start. Gluttons for punishment?

Hunter Mahan and David Toms vs. Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel
Mahan and Toms registered 6 and 5 foursomes win on Day 1. Goosen and Schwartzel were solid in Day 2 four-ball victory over same duo. Have to like the Yanks here given the format, even if momentum with South Africans.

Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson vs. Adam Scott and K.J. Choi
The handshake, part 2. Will it be more handwringing for Tiger, who suffered his worst match play defeat at the hands of Scott and Choi two days earlier? Tough spot for Woods, who is only American without a point and can only hit half the shots. Good news is that he can't do worse than what's already transpired.

Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk vs. Aaron Baddeley and Jason Day
No member of this foursome has lost yet, so should be a good battle. Likely winner? Hmmm. Combined age of US team: 80. Combined age of Aussies: 54. Does youth get served or served on a vegamite sandwich?

-- Dave Shedloski

Peter Thomson awards trophy to Australian Open winner Greg Chalmers last week (Getty Images Photo)

Greg Norman is a commanding presence at the Presidents Cup and beyond. His is the face of Australian golf, the dashing Great White Shark, who for the better part of two decades mesmerized us equally with his gifts and gaffes.

Now 56, he has gracefully assumed the position of elder statesman, which he is playing out this week as the captain of the International team attempting to coax only its second victory of the nine Presidents Cup that have been played and first since 1998. That he has the opportunity to do so Down Under has cast him in a leading role in the drama unfolding at Royal Melbourne.

Though he has earned his standing in golf -- comfortably residing among the legends, certainly, pratfalls notwithstanding -- it is easy to forget this week that Australian golf did not begin with Norman, easier still to forget that it did begin with Peter Thomson.

The most celebrated Australian in golf history, Thomson won the British Open five times, three consecutively (1954 through '56), and in a seven-year span did not finish worse than second. Moreover, he once was the professional at Royal Melbourne and captained the International team to its only Presidents Cup victory there in 1998.

Thomson, 82, ranks the Presidents Cup victory "the biggest thing I ever did in my life," he once said, placing it ahead of a playing career that included national championships of 10 different countries and landed him in the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1988.

Earlier this week, Thomson addressed the importance of the Presidents Cup victory with Brent Read of the Australian.

"It was a very joyous occasion," Thomson told Read. "To be captain of that bunch of young players was a wonderful experience for me. The other things are very selfish things -- there is no one to bother you and sometimes you win. But playing with a team is something different. It's belonging. Everybody wants to belong -- family, church, something. This is the only way you do it in golf for those who are not Europeans or Americans, to belong to a Presidents Cup team."

Thomson obviously will never forget it. Neither should we.

-- John Strege

Discuss all things related to the Presidents Cup on our partner site, GolfWRX.com.

MELBOURNE -- If this were an election, news agencies would be dangerously close to projecting a winner. The International side did not get off to the fast start they hoped for at Royal Melbourne, and the Presidents Cup goes into the weekend with the United States positioned quite nicely to collect its sixth consecutive victory.

But there are still 22 points left to be contested -- five each in foursomes and four-ball on Saturday and 12 singles matches Sunday. The home side can still turn this around, but it needs to show a lot more than we have seen so far.

Here's what must happen for the home team to win. First, continue to exploit its local knowledge of Royal Melbourne; secondly, try to get the crowd into the matches a lot more; and finally -- and most importantly -- send out a search party for its team members who have yet to show up.

The Americans, who won Thursday's foursomes 4-2, split the four-ball matches Friday and take a 7-5 lead into the weekend that feels much larger, in part because more Americans have contributed than have International team members. In fact, the only Yank without a point after two days is Tiger Woods, while there are five guys on the other side have been shut out.

"Well from my perspective and my team's perspective, we are extremely pleased with the end result today," said International captain Greg Norman. "We were looking for a long time like being 4-2 again. We are extremely proud of the way Aaron Baddeley bounced back from yesterday."

The Yanks have led going into the weekend in four of its five consecutive victories in this competition, the lone exception being a 6.5 to 5.5 deficit in 2005. And the erratic play up to now by many on the International side makes it feel like it must build a lead before Sunday's singles, where the depth of the American squad should dominate.

MELBOURNE -- It's a sure sign of at least impending success in any international team competition. When a non-playing captain has enough confidence in his men that he can largely leave well alone on the partnership front, it signals to the world -- and not coincidentally the opposition -- that there is contentment and serenity within the camp. So when the United States emerged for the six four-balls on day two of the ninth Presidents Cup with four teams intact from the previous day's foursomes, the message was sent to Greg Norman's band of Internationals: we're happy with what we've got and we think we can beat you.

Actually, at least as far as the opening series of four-balls was (eventually) concerned, they didn't. But, then again, they didn't lose either. At the end of what was a fascinating -- but grotesquely slow -- day at Royal Melbourne, the 12-strong US team will carry into Saturday's potentially pivotal mix of foursomes and four-balls the same two-point edge they created on day one. Significantly, 11 Americans have now recorded at least half a point; the odd man out is Tiger Woods, who lost on the last green in tandem with Dustin Johnson. So far at least, the former world number one is a pointless pick.

Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images

Still, for the rest of the visiting squad, it was more a day for consolidation than celebration. After picking up two late halves on day one to create that early lead, not allowing the opposition back into the game was surely the most important aspect of a hot, blustery day at Royal Melbourne. Conditions, in fact, were those in which many pundits -- this one included -- felt the Americans would struggle. Lightning fast greens combined with the strong breeze to create an environment in which defense was often the best form of attack. Certainly, putts were typically trickling rather than rolling.