INCHEON, South Korea: World No. 1 Jordan Spieth and second-ranked Jason Day were kept apart in the Presidents Cup singles, but the Australian will still face a 2015 fellow Major champion in Zach Johnson on Sunday.

The US PGA champion Day and British Open champion Johnson go head-to-head in the marquee 10th match of the 12 singles encounters at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Incheon.

It could prove the pivotal game with the US holding a slender 9.5-8.5 lead after the four rounds of team fourball and foursomes play were completed on Saturday.

Masters and US Open champion Spieth will be out just ahead of them in the ninth match against Aussie Marc Leishman.

“I guess we wanted Jordan in slot eight, nine or 10... I guess we could have posted him in 10 (against Day),” said US captain Jay Haas.

“I heard some groans had we put him up that it was not a Jason/Jordan match-up. But they played two matches against each other this week and this is not a head-to-head personal battle.”

International captain Nick Price clearly thought his US counterpart would match the world’s two top players. “I was surprised they put Jordan (Spieth) down opposite Marc Leishman,” he said.

“With Jordan, I think they are figuring that he is going to be the point that’s going to win. But if it isn’t, the momentum switches to us.”

Should the match go right to the wire, then it will be down to South Korea’s Bae Sang-Moon in the anchor match against the American captain’s son, Bill Haas, in front of a frenzied crowd in Incheon.

“There wasn’t any philosophy in that (positioning of Bae),” said Price of the man who has been outstanding on debut, winning two and halving one of his three matches so far.

“It’s just that I wanted to keep three really strong players toward the end to be honest.”

Unbeaten South African Louis Oosthuizen will look to level the match score early by bringing in the first International team point when he opens proceedings against Patrick Reed at 10:35 a.m. local time (0135 GMT).

Then it’s Adam Scott — who has been majestic on tee to green all week but horribly out of touch with his new short putter — against Rickie Fowler.

Rookie Korean-born Kiwi Danny Lee, who sat out all of Saturday’s action has a mammoth task third up against big-hitting Dustin Johnson.

Another rookie, Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand, was also left out Saturday and will face the intimidating force of left-handed 2012 and 2014 Masters champion Bubba Watson.

Phil Mickelson, in his 11th Presidents Cup, takes on in-form Charl Schwartzel in what looks like a closely matched encounter.

The unbeaten and outstanding Branden Grace goes up against Matt Kuchar in the penultimate match as International team captain Nick Price looks for the elusive winning combination to prevent the US lifting the trophy for the sixth time in a row since it was shared in 2003.

“Obviously the guys have to go out and play golf, pure and simple,” said Price.

“I think we’ve got some really good match-ups tomorrow. I think we’re going to see some phenomenal matches. We’re only one behind.”