The International team brought the entertainment but it was team USA who stole the show as their big players stood up to be counted late on to swing the Saturday foursomes session in their favour and take a commanding 11-7 lead into the Sunday singles.
Mike Weir’s Internationals trailed 8-6 after losing the morning four balls session 3-1 but looked on course to at the very worst, head into Sunday level pegging with Jim Furyk’s Americans in Montreal.
Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith secured the first point in the top foursomes match albeit they stumbled over the line with a 2UP win over Max Homa and Brian Harman. At that stage the hosts were up in two and all square in one of the three remaining matches.
The highlight reels will be littered with long range putts, holed bunker shots and further chip ins from the International side but as the sun began to set, the tide started to turn.
With five holes to play all three matches were tied before world number one Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa all came up trumps in the closing stages for the USA.
Mike Weir stuck with the same four pairs from the morning four balls meaning three of his pairs had played three matches in a row by the end of play. Understandable given the International’s whitewash of the USA in the Friday foursomes but perhaps the energy levels hit empty towards the end of Saturday’s foursomes.
The added body blow of being potentially level or even ahead to facing a four point deficit heading into Sunday will be a huge body blow to Weir’s charges who did everything to bring the President’s Cup back to life.
After Scott and Pendrith secured the first point of the afternoon, the Canadian duo of Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes came up short against Morikawa and Sam Burns with the latter winning out by the minimum on 18.
Conners and Hughes will rue some big chances missed particularly Conners who misjudged his approach to 14 before missing a great opportunity to level affairs on 15.
Hughes got the match to all square with a big putt on 16 but the pair couldn’t keep the wheels on and made a sloppy bogey on the last as Morikawa hammered the nail in the coffin.
Moments later Scheffler and Russell Henley came from three down after six holes to beat Sungjae Im and Hideki Matsuyama 3&2.
The wheels fell off for Im and Matsuyama but Scheffler who was not at the races for the first third of the match, showed why he is world number one and the Americans took the lead for the first time on the 14th and ended up running out comfortable winners.
“I’ve got to give a ton of credit to Russ,” said Scheffler who earned his first foursomes win in any competition in seven attempts. “I felt like I messed up the beginning of the match. I felt like I was on a different planet for the first six holes, really the first five holes. Starting on No. 6 I hit a good shot in there, and I don’t think Russ missed a shot today. I can’t think of one shot I thought he could have hit better. Props to my guy here; he’s a great partner and I’m just proud to be out here with him.”
Then it was the turn of the Ian Poulter’s of this Presidents Cup, Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
All square going up the last, the Korean pair were inside Cantlay and Schauffele for birdie before Cantlay drilled his putt home from 20 feet for a sensational birdie as Si Woo Kim missed his putt, allowing the USA to move four clear and put one hand on the trophy.
The two Kim’s were stars of the show. Si Woo had already gone viral for taking his hat off mid roll on a match winning putt and he and Tom continued to be the life and soul of the party in the afternoon.
Si Woo looked to have rescued the situation for the Internationals when he flopped up and in to the hole on the 16th from a seemingly impossible position as he ran around the green doing the Steph Curry celebration.
“Yeah, it was just exciting. That’s what we needed. I didn’t expect the ball was going to go in, but I was so excited. Yeah, my favorite NBA player is Steph Curry, so that’s what I did. It didn’t finish well, but yeah, I was excited.”
Putts from 35-feet were going in, putts from off the green went in, Tom Kim has holed from outside 20-feet five times this week with PGA Tour average for a 72-hole tournament standing at just 2.
Unfortunately for the Kim’s who had to battle back from 2DN after 8 holes couldn’t do enough to edge their noses in front at any stage and in a match where arguably nobody deserved to lose, they lost.
The USA now look on course for a thirteenth Presidents Cup victory in fifteen attempts while the Internationals wait for a first win since 1998 looks set to continue.
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