The United States have retaken control of the Presidents Cup heading into the final-day singles after a marathon Saturday of high drama and tension in the fourballs and foursomes in Montreal.
Having seen their day-one lead of 5-0 immediately wiped out in staggering fashion by a resurgent International side on Friday, the US team won both Saturday sessions 3-1 to establish an overall lead of 11-7 for Sunday’s decisive 12 singles matches.
But the relative luxury of a four-point cushion for the defending champions had looked anything but assured halfway through the delayed afternoon foursomes amid another fierce and determined challenge from Mike Weir’s International side in which his all-Korean pairing of Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim played central starring roles.
Indeed, the challengers to the US crown took the first point of the foursomes as Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith finished 2up against Max Homa and Brian Harman.
But the American team appeared to get stronger in the later matches as the back nine progressed and, amid fast-fading light at the Royal Montreal Golf Club following schedule changes due to morning fog, they duly edged the remaining three foursome matches their way in a potentially decisive phase of the four-day contest.
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Underlining the late turnaround, world No 1 Scottie Scheffler and playing partner Russell Henley eventually triumphed 3&2 having been three down on Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im after just six holes.
Scheffler may have absolutely dominated world golf this year – winning eight times on the PGA Tour including the Masters – yet the American experienced a woeful run with the putter amid the Internationals’ early surge.
In an unwanted hat-trick on consecutive holes, Scheffler first lipped out when presented with a makeable birdie putt on the third before uncharacteristically missing what would have been hole-tying par puts on the fourth and fifth from short distances.
The two-time Masters champion eventually found his form with the putter but gave his playing partner credit for the match win afterwards.
“I’ve got to give a ton of credit to Russ,” said Scheffler. “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.”
More to follow…
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