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Presidents Cup

Presidents Cup: International Intrigue

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MONTREAL – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Adam Scott of Australia notched a milestone as the International team dug out of a big hole on Day 2 of the Presidents Cup, sweeping all five foursomes matches against the United States at Royal Montreal Golf Club on Friday.

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After being swept in the fourball matches on Thursday, the Internationals needed nothing less than a stellar performance in the alternate-shot format to avoid going into the weekend with an almost insurmountable deficit.

And they responded in a manner that captain Mike Weir of Canada could hardly have dreamt of, by turning the tables to even up the score at 5-5.

“I believed in the guys,” Weir said in a greenside interview. “5-0 was obviously a bonus. We just wanted to get back in this and the guys responded incredibly.”

American captain Jim Furyk said: “When I look at the scores, they played a lot of great golf. We’re going to have to get ready for (Saturday). We’ve got a tough match on our hands.

“We got to watch them celebrate. I hope that sticks with everyone (on my team). We’ll regroup, get some good pairs out there in the morning and it’s our turn to come out firing.”

The Internationals completely dominated three matches, including a 5-and-4 rout by Scott and his Canadian partner Taylor Pendrith against Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala.

The match victory earned Scott his 22nd point in the Presidents Cup, an International team record. He is making his 11th consecutive appearance in an event that pits a team of players from countries outside Europe against the U.S.

Scott has never played on a winning team in an event that the Americans have dominated since its inception in 1994, losing only once in 1998, and tying in 2003.

Scott and Pendrith were not the only International pairing to dominate on Friday.

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and South Korean Sungjae Im set the tone with a 7-and-6 dusting of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay in the opening match.

Canadian duo Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes also won convincingly, 6-and-5 over Wyndham Clark and Tony Finau.

The other two matches were more competitive. Australian Jason Day and South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout outlasted Max Homa and Brian Harman 1-up, thanks in no small measure to a deft pitch shot by Day to gimme range at the last that secured the point.

The U.S. seemed set to avoid being swept when Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley parred the last against Korean duo Si Woo Kim and Byeong Hun An.

But Kim calmly sank a 15-footer to halve the hole and secure a 1-up victory.

–Field Level Media

Presidents Cup: USA Five-Zip

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MONTREAL – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The U.S. team clicked at almost every turn in sweeping five four-ball matches to open Presidents Cup competition by blitzing the International team Thursday at Royal Montreal Golf Club.

The 5-0 count marked the first sweep of a four-ball session for the U.S. since the 1994 Presidents Cup.

The most dominant round came from Russell Henley and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler as they secured a 3-and-2 victory over South Korea’s Tom Kim and Sungjae Im. That also marked the tensest encounter.

After Kim celebrated a long birdie putt that gave the International tandem the brief upper hand on the par-3 seventh, Scheffler sank a 27-foot birdie to halve the hole. Scheffler turned and shouted “What was that?” in Kim’s direction, clearly one of the most emotional moments of the first day.

The U.S. pairings showed stellar finishing touches because they led all five matches at times and didn’t need many clutch moments down the stretch.

Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele gave the U.S. its first point with a 1-up victory on South Korea’s Byeong Hun An and Australia’s Jason Day.

Finau’s chip-in front the greenside rough for a birdie on No. 14 allowed the U.S. team to halve the hole. Finau and Schauffele both missed putts from inside 4 feet on No. 16, keeping the match tied.

Schauffele was good from 3 feet on the last hole to clinch the point.

Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala, who’s in his first international team competition representing the U.S., topped Australians Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee 1 up.

Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark never trailed and took the lead for good on the 13th hole to edge South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Canada’s Taylor Pendrith 1 up.

Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns finished the sweep by winning 2 and 1 against Canada’s Corey Conners and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. A birdie from Burns at No. 13 gave the U.S. a 2-up lead, and that was the final shift.

The four-ball matches came on the opening day of four days of competition, concluding Sunday. The first team to 15 1/2 points wins the cup.

–Field Level Media

Presidents Cup: Weir vs Furyk

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MONTREAL – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – There are different kinds of pressure on the two captains at this year’s Presidents Cup, whether they let on about it or not.

Jim Furyk’s job is to extend the U.S. team’s dominance in the event to 10 straight victories. Mike Weir is captaining the International squad at Royal Montreal in his native Canada, with three Canadians playing on the team.

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On Tuesday, two days before the competition begins, Furyk and Weir sat side by side at their joint press conference.

“Jim knows how close it’s been the last few years. It’s a tight, intense competition,” Weir said. “Yeah, the score the last bunch of years has gone the U.S.’ way, but they’ve been very competitive matches. … I think it’s heading the right direction no matter what happens. Sure, it’s competitive. We want to win. We’re not putting any of that extra, ‘We need to do this to elevate the event.’

“It’s just a great competition, and we’re not adding any layers on top of that.”

Weir is the first Canadian to captain the International team, and it comes at a fitting venue, Royal Montreal, which hosted the Presidents Cup in 2007. Weir played in that event and led his team with 3 1/2 points, but the Americans won 19 1/2-14 1/2.

Weir said he’s yet to talk with the three Canadian players on his team — Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith — about what to expect, but that’s not to say that he won’t.

“This is at home in front of your own fans,” Weir said. “I guess for me I used the energy in a positive way when I was here in 2007. I didn’t take it as pressure. I took it as, ‘Just embrace it.’ I don’t know if I’ll ever have this kind of chance again to play in front of my home country fans. So I just tried to embrace it. That will probably be most of the message is enjoy yourself.”

An International win would be just the second since the event began in 1994, and it could re-energize a one-sided event that’s not nearly as popular as the Ryder Cup.

But Furyk was posed with that idea by an American reporter last week and responded with multiple profanities, explaining how important winning is to any competitor.

“I would say it’s just an extremely emotional week as far as there’s ups, there’s downs,” Furyk added Tuesday. “The U.S. Team gets on a run, then the International Team gets on a run. It’s kind of a roller coaster ride all week. These guys expend a ton of energy. … A lot of it’s probably just letting (players) know how much — it’s a marathon. It’s a week long, and make sure that you save some energy for the end and pace yourself on the way.”

Furyk may have something to prove for himself, too. He was the U.S. captain at the 2018 Ryder Cup, where Team Europe steamrolled the Americans in Paris for a seven-point win.

He said he believes the U.S. team plays “a little bit more loose, we play a little more free” at Presidents Cups.

“So I’ll make some different changes,” Furyk said. “I’ll run this team a little different. I’ll draw from some good experiences that we’ve had in the past.

“The biggest question I always get asked from ‘18 is would you — if you had the chance to go back and do something differently, would you? First time I heard the question, I started laughing. My answer was very simple. How arrogant would you have to be to say, ‘Nope, we didn’t win, but I wouldn’t do anything different at all’? Of course I would. I’d go back and change it.”

–Field Level Media