Greg Norman likened the US pairing of Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker to a buzzsaw, and on Thursday they put Ryo Ishikawa and Geoff Ogilvy through the mill.

Woods and Stricker marched to a 6 and 4 victory over Ishikawa and Ogilvy in the opening foursomes matches of the Presidents Cup.

For 18-year-old Ishikawa, it was rude welcome to the biennial golf event, which has America taking on an International team from all corners of the globe except Europe.

"With Ryo and Geoff, to get up against Tiger and Steve - it was a bit of a buzzsaw for them," Internationals captain Greg Norman said. "But that's part of the stepping stones that we have to go through."

"I thought Ryo did a great job in holding his poise and his calmness during the whole thing."

Ishikawa admitted there was little more that he and Ogilvy could have done to win the alternate-shot match, in which Woods and Stricker took the lead on the second hole and steadily built it.

"This format of the foursomes, it's tough," Ishikawa said. "But we did our best. We tried hard. Even though we finished 6 and 4, we definitely didn't play to that result.

"I think the USA team just played unbelievable," he added. "And Geoff and I played our best."

Ishikawa, a sensation in his homeland, is no stranger to attention, and was unruffled by an incident at the third hole where Ogilvy was preparing to putt when a cellphone went off.

Ogilvy was about to putt to halve the hole when the phone rang. He backed off, but as soon as he tried again, it rang again - apparently the property of a marshal who didn't know how to turn it off.

Once the marshal made himself scarce, came a heckler who shouted at Ogilvy.

"That was a little awkward," Stricker said. "And then for the guy to say what he said right before Geoff hit the putt was not reallly what we wanted to have happen."

"Absolutely uncalled for," Woods said of the catcall. "This is not what this team event is all about.

"You could hear some of the guys in the gallery actually get on this guy about sportsmanship, and actually I thought that was pretty cool," Woods added.

"We all felt bad for Geoff... he handled it great and was a class act."