Maybe they won’t admit it, but on Friday at the Presidents’ CupThe Americans had to think, if only for a moment, surely what happened two years ago could not happen again.
When the underdog Internationals overcame a 5-0 deficit to win all five of four games on Day 2 of the 2024 Presidents Cup, it was a stunner. Although, in the end, it didn’t matter — the Americans cruised to their 10th straight win anyway — but it was a surprisingly unsettling development for the Americans, who surely wouldn’t want to endure that same feeling today.
And then it happened again.
The International team won all five foursomes (alternate shot) matches. Medinah Country Club Friday, overturning the Presidents Cup and taking a stunning 7-3 on a crucial weekend.
“We’ve seen in these events that when you have a lot of your team on the charts, at some point, it inspires all the groups,” said captain of the international team Geoff Ogilvy. “Yes, it was an incredible day for us.”
It’s just the seventh time a team has swept a Presidents Cup session, and it’s the first time it’s happened in back-to-back Presidents Cups. The 7-3 lead also ties the largest lead the Internationals have ever held in two sessions. The other time was in 1998, the only year they won the Presidents’ Cup.
And while the Internationals did this two years ago, it was still 5-5 after Friday. Now? It’s 7-3.
“We just want to win the session,” Ogilvy said. “They were all in good spirits – but you never imagined doing five series.”
The United States took early leads in the first two games of the day, but were unable to hold on. At 4:00 p.m. local time, just as the fifth game was about to start, the Internationals lead four games out of five and the other was tied. A few minutes later, Wyndham Clark made a birdie putt on 12 in the third game to give the United States its only lead on the scoreboard. But even this did not hold.
The first International point came from the second game, as Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im beat Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman – the only two Americans who sat on Thursday – 3 and 2 after Matsuyama made a long save in 16 and Bridgeman lipped out his par try.
The No. 2 point came after Canadians Nick Taylor and Corey Conners beat Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, who U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker put in the first-round match for the second straight day. On Thursday, Scheffler and Burns went 1 for their first win in five tries as teammates (they were 0-3-1 as Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup partners before that) but never led the fourth hole on Friday.
The Canadian duo gave Scheffler and Burns a chance for half a point on 18, when Taylor missed the fairway well to the right and Conners had to get back into it. But Taylor’s approach danced around the hole and was awarded for par, and when Burns holed his birdie, the Internationals claimed the 1-up victory and the full point.
“I had a poor drive, and the motivation was there to give me and Corey a chance at 4 to put some pressure back on,” Taylor said. “It was a good number with a 9 iron, and it came out perfectly. It was more like redemption for that tee shot, but happy to walk away with a 4, and lucky there that Sam lipped it out.”
At that moment, it looked curious for the Americans, who did not lead any more games after Ryan Fox and Min Woo Lee made back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th and beat Collin Morikawa and Clark 1 up.
The other parties ended soon after. Justin Thomas and Cameron Young never made a birdie in a 3-and-2 loss to Adam Scott and Christiaan Bezuidenhout. (It was Thomas’ first Presidents Cup loss in four games; before Friday he was 4-0-2 all-time in the format.) Seconds later Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim beat Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele 4 and 3, a match that ended with Schauffele lipping out a putt from close range.
The last time the Americans trailed at home after Friday was in 2005, though they rallied to win, and that was the first of what has now been 10 straight wins in this event. But that deficit was one – not four.
“That thing is over 35, 40 percent — that’s not even half a football game,” Snedeker said. “We miss a lot of golf.”
Although it could be said that the first two days of the Presidents’ Cup are just tables. There are eight matches in play on Saturday (four four-balls, four foursomes) before 12 singles matches on Sunday decide the winner.
The Americans are 13-1-1 all-time in this event and have won 10 straight. But now they’re down 7-3, and the last two Fridays of the Presidents Cup have shown that anything is possible.
