Tiger Woods (second from right) and teammates celebrate winning the Presidents Cup on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Tiger Woods' US produced a stunning turnaround to deny the Internationals a first Presidents Cup in 21 years Sunday, dominating the singles on a tense final day that went to the wire at Royal Melbourne.

Veteran Matt Kuchar was the hero, with his winning putt on the 17th in the penultimate match enough to ensure victory, sparking wild celebrations from playing-captain Woods, who set the tone by getting the first point on the board.

It was a crushing loss for Ernie Els' young Internationals who led for the first three days of the biennial match play event but failed to deliver the killer blow against a more experienced and accomplished US team.

They went into the 12 singles matches with a 10-8 lead but the tide began quickly turning with Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson among those racing to big early leads with the scoreboard swathed in US red.

When Webb Simpson beat South Korea's An Byeong-hun, the US went 15-12 in front and needed just half a point with the Internationals leading in two of three matches still in play.

Australian Cameron Smith grabbed one more point by beating Justin Thomas, ensuring a nailbiting finale with Kuchar's heroics on 17 ensuring there was no way back Els' team.

"I trusted all my 11 guys. I ­trusted them implicitly. I told them from the very get go. They went out there and got the points we needed. We fought," said Woods. "Even the points we lost, we were making them earn every one of them, and this Cup wasn't going to be given to us. We had to go earn it, and we did."

It was a remarkable comeback. No side before had rallied to win on the last day after trailing for three days, further cementing the reputation of Woods, who went undefeated in his three matches.

The playing-captain Woods, in his ninth Presidents Cup, set the tone from the front, going out first in the singles and winning 3 and 2 against battling Mexican Abraham Ancer.

In doing so he passed Phil Mickelson to become the most successful Presidents Cup golfer in history with a 27 win, 15 loss and 1 tied record to his countryman's 26-16-13.

It was the US' 11th victory in 13 editions of the event. One was drawn with the lone International win coming in 1998, also at Royal Melbourne.