The Beach Boys and Backstreet Boys made an appearance at Royal Melbourne in Australia during the first round of four-ball matches on Thursday (Wednesday night in the U.S.) at the Presidents Cup.
Not in person, no, but rather in spirit.
A group of boisterous American fans donning Captain American and tiger costumes sang loudly and proudly on the first tee for Tiger Woods and Patrick Cantlay before their opening tee shots.
The group began by singing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” instead changing the word lion to tiger for Woods.
For the next match, the group sang the Backstreet Boys’ 1999 hit “I want it that way” before Cantlay hit his opening tee shot, but changed the words a bit. Instead of “I want it that way,” the American gallery instead sang “I want Pat Cantlay.”
Woods went on to birdie the first hole to give himself and Justin Thomas an early lead against Joaquin Niemann and Marc Leishman, while Cantlay and playing partner Xander Schauffele were stunned by a Sungjae Im hole-out for eagle.
