The Internationals had a chance to take Day 1 of the Presidents Cup but Sungjae Im and Min Woo Lee weren’t able to flip the first match of the day.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 8 Sam Burns beat that duo 1 up in the only match that went to the 18th hole at Medinah Country Club in four-ball play on Thursday in the Chicago suburbs.
The US leads the four-day event 3-2, with five more points up for grabs in foursomes play (alternate shot) on Friday.
“I saw a lot of good golf out there — 2-3 their way is not too bad,” said International team captain Geoff Ogilvy. “We had a couple of really good solid matches there, and we had a match go up to 18, which would have been nice if it went the other way, but 2-3, we’ll take that. The boys have got a round under their belt now.”
Although the Internationals shouldn’t feel too discouraged. As road underdogs — and with the US holding a 13-1-1 record all-time in this event — it was a solid performance.
Yet stealing that first match would have been big.
The lead-off match in these events is always crucial, as it can so often set the tone for the ones behind it. This was even more important Thursday, as the Internationals could have picked up major momentum by not only winning the first match of the week — but by taking down a duo that included the top-ranked player in the world.
Scheffler and Burns birdied the first four holes of their match but were still only tied after Lee and Im birdied Nos. 2-5. It was still tied until Im rolled in a birdie putt on the par-3 13th hole and Scheffler missed his from close range. That gave the Internationals the lead in three of the five matches on the course — all of which were on the back nine – until a Burns birdie on the next hole tied it again.
“I felt like both teams got off to pretty hot starts today and we cooled off a little bit off that,” Scheffler said. “But Sam I felt like hit probably the shot of the match there on 14. We lost 13 to go 1 down, and then he hit one in there to a couple feet, and we were able to square the match up. I felt like that was really a big moment for us as a team, and he stepped up when we needed him to.”
With the other match-ups looking one-sided, the first match seemed destined to decide who would take the lead into Friday. Luckily for the Americans, they didn’t even need to birdie the 17th to win. Scheffler and Burns won the hole with a par and then took the match after Im and Lee failed to make birdie on 18.
In the four matches behind, Justin Thomas and Jackson Koivun never trailed in a 4-and-3 victory over Corey Conners and Nico Echavarria, earning the first point of the week. The 21-year-old Koivun struggled at times but Thomas was stellar once again, improving his Presidents Cup four-balls record to 7-0-0. A few minutes later Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune took down Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele, 3 and 1.
Scheffler and Burns finished off their win for the Americans’ second point, and it wasn’t long until Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa put a bow on their 3-and-2 victory over Ryan Fox and Adam Scott.
In the final match of the day, Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim held a slim lead over Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay but won the 13th and 14th holes to take control. They won 3 and 2 after Tom Kim nearly holed his tee shot on the par-3 16th and the Americans conceded.
But there’s still lots of golf left to be played. In the last Presidents Cup, two years ago at Royal Melbourne, the Americans won all five Thursday four-ball match-ups — only to have the Internationals win all five Friday foursomes matches.
The US won 18.5-11.5 in 2024, their 10th straight victory in the Presidents Cup.
This article originated on Golf.com
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