How the U.S. lost all five foursomes matches at the Presidents Cup
The U.S. team failed to earn a point in Friday’s five foursomes matches and entered the weekend trailing 7-3 at the Presidents Cup.
- Friday’s Presidents Cup session became a nightmare for the U.S.
- The International team took a 7-3 lead into the weekend.
- Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns went 1 up against Nick Taylor and Corey Conners.
- 2 in the DataGolf rankings, while Taylor and Conners are regarded as Canada’s strongest players.
Friday’s Presidents Cup session became a nightmare for the U.S. team: the Americans lost all five foursomes matches without earning a point. The International team took a 7-3 lead into the weekend.
The session began with an expected U.S. surge. Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns went 1 up against Nick Taylor and Corey Conners. Scheffler and Burns are No. 1 and No. 2 in the DataGolf rankings, while Taylor and Conners are regarded as Canada’s strongest players. All eight of the U.S. team’s top players are ranked higher than Si Woo Kim, the International team’s No. 1 player at No. 14 in the world. J.J. Spaun, left at home, is also ranked higher at No. 12. Even assistant captains Gary Woodland and Keegan Bradley, ranked No. 43 and No. 50 in the world, are ahead of Conners (No. 55) and Taylor (No. 85).
The day’s result, however, went completely against expectations.
Match I: Taylor’s escape
Taylor hit an errant tee shot into trouble down the right side of the 18th while holding a 1-up lead. After Conners pitched out sideways with his second, Taylor faced the third shot before the Americans played their approach.
He stuffed the shot from 151 yards to kick-in range for birdie. Burns nearly matched the heroics with a birdie putt from just inside 20 feet: the ball tracked on the correct line at the right speed, but spun out. Instead of the tying birdie 3, the Americans were left with a losing par 4.
Match II: Im and Matsuyama’s decisive par
Sungjae Im and Hideki Matsuyama won four straight holes, Nos. 3 through 6, turning a 1-down deficit into a 3-up lead. Jacob Bridgeman and Russell Henley steadied themselves and reached the 16th hole only 2 down.
After two shots from each side, it appeared the Americans might cut the deficit: Matsuyama had 19 feet for par, while Bridgeman had only 7 feet. Matsuyama’s par putt found the center of the hole, but Bridgeman’s caught the edge and slid past. The match ended 3 and 2.
If the trend holds, the U.S. team will have gone 6-24 in alternate-shot play in team events since 2023. The Americans’ most competitive session came Saturday at the 2024 Presidents Cup in Montreal, when they went 3-1 after losing Friday’s session 5-0 to the Internationals.
Match III: Fox outplays the Americans
On the back nine, Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark were the only U.S. pair still holding a lead. A birdie at No. 12 put them 1 up.
Ryan Fox then took advantage of Morikawa’s misses twice. Fox holed a 14-footer for birdie at No. 15, while Morikawa missed from 13 feet. At No. 16, Fox made a 19-footer and Morikawa missed from 10. Clark nearly holed his approach at No. 17, but Morikawa missed the ensuing 5-footer for birdie. After the sides tied the 18th, the match officially belonged to the Internationals.
Match IV: Bezuidenhout’s long birdie
It was particularly painful for the Americans that the only recorded birdie by Cameron Young and Justin Thomas came after the match had ended.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout made a 30-footer for birdie from the right edge of the 16th green to seal the 3-and-2 win. After the handshake, Young hit his birdie putt anyway, either for practice or out of frustration, and it dropped. Some U.S. fans celebrated the shot.
After the round, U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker was asked about the pairing. He said he had wanted to keep both players in the lineup after what he saw from them Thursday.
“Maybe when this thing is all over I’ll look back and realize it wasn’t the right decision. But it seemed like the right decision at the time. I love those guys. They battled their ass off today. We just didn’t quite get the momentum we wanted,” Snedeker said.
Match V: Just get it over with
The final three heartbreaks came almost back-to-back. Fox finished the third match with a short putt at No. 18, then Bezuidenhout holed his putt at No. 16, and soon afterward Xander Schauffele horseshoed a 3-foot putt at No. 15.
That ended Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay’s 4-and-3 loss to Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim.
“Luckily the session is over. And we’ve got 70 percent of the points in front of us,” Schauffele said after the round.
Read more on this topic
