World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler showed early emotion and that seemed to be a theme that carried the U.S. team on the opening day of the Presidents Cup.
The U.S. team clicked at almost every turn in sweeping five four-ball matches by blitzing the International team on Thursday at Royal Montreal Golf Club.
The 5-0 count marked the first sweep of a four-ball session for the U.S. since the 1994 Presidents Cup.
“I just had such a blast out there today,” U.S. team member Keegan Bradley said. “It’s really fun for me to be out here with these guys. … What a great day for the USA, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
The most dominant round came from Russell Henley and Scheffler as they secured a 3-and-2 victory over South Korea’s Tom Kim and Sungjae Im. That also marked the tensest encounter.
After Kim celebrated a long birdie putt that gave the International tandem the brief upper hand on the par-3 seventh, Scheffler sank a 27-foot birdie to halve the hole. Scheffler turned and shouted “What was that?” in Kim’s direction, clearly one of the most emotional moments of the first day.
“It’s all in good fun,” Scheffler said. “We enjoy competing against each other.”
Yet Kim seemed perturbed by his overall performance.
“It’s just on me,” he said. “I feel like I could have done a better job as a partner. I missed a short putt on 14. I think it was a big momentum shift.”
Across the course, the U.S. was holding most of the momentum.
“We had a couple chances in the middle of the match to extend ourselves and we weren’t able to hole them, but Russell stepped up in a big way on 14 and 15 with back-to-back birdies to give us a 3-up lead,” Scheffler said.
The U.S. pairings showed stellar finishing touches because they led all five matches at times and didn’t need many clutch moments down the stretch.
Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele gave the U.S. its first point with a 1-up victory on South Korea’s Byeong Hun An and Australia’s Jason Day.
Finau’s chip-in of 30-plus feet from the greenside rough for a birdie on No. 14 allowed the U.S. team to halve the hole. Finau and Schauffele both missed putts from inside 6 feet on No. 16, keeping the match tied.
Schauffele was good from 3 feet on the last hole to clinch the point.
“I knew he was going to have my back, and I have his back,” Finau said. “That’s team golf. That’s what I love about it, the atmosphere.”
Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala, who’s in his first international team competition representing the U.S., topped Australians Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee 1 up.
“I was really, really nervous,” Theegala said. “I tried to channel that as positively as I can, but definitely thought about what I was doing a few times out there. Just realized I needed to do my thing.”
Morikawa said there was a comfort level with Theegala as his partner because they’ve played together since youth circuits. It became smoother for the duo later in the round.
“We started giving ourselves two birdie looks,” Morikawa said, “and that’s the most important thing in this format is giving yourself opportunities, both of us, and not playing 1 v. 2.”
Bradley and Wyndham Clark never trailed and took the lead for good on the 13th hole to edge South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Canada’s Taylor Pendrith 1 up. Bradley’s winding putt on the last hole assured the point for the U.S. pair.
Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns finished the sweep by winning 2 and 1 against Canada’s Corey Conners and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. A birdie from Burns at No. 13 gave the U.S. a 2-up lead, and that was the final shift.
The four-ball matches came on the opening day of four days of competition, concluding Sunday. The first team to 15 1/2 points wins the cup.
–Field Level Media
