9am: 2026 Presidents Cup Day 1 Scoreboard.
A strong finish by Geoff Ogilvy’s Internationals Team on Day 1 has the 2026 Presidents Cup perfectly poised for an intriguing foursomes showdown tomorrow.
Here’s a quick summary of the results from the opening day’s play:
8:45am: The US walked away from the opening session of the Presidents Cup with a 3-2 lead.
But the Internationals can take some solace in how they closed things out on Thursday. Specifically, the final swing of the day from Tom Kim on the par-3 16th hole.
A walk-off ace would have been something. But the gimme birdie was enough for Kim and Si Woo Kim to close out Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay, 4 and 2. And while trailing yet again after Day 1, the Internationals one-point deficit is the closest opening session since 2013 so they shouldn’t be hanging their heads just yet. – Ryan Herrington
6am: “Let’s be savages for everybody this week!”
When US captain Brandt Snedeker uttered those words on the first tee late on Thursday morning at Medinah Country Club before the first tee shots of the 16th Presidents Cup, the first thought from this corner was, “You had two years and that’s what you came up with?” The second was, “Sheesh, read the room.”
RELATED: We asked what you’d change about the Presidents Cup. Here’s what you said
A year ago, American golf fans did become the very definition of the word savages during the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. They were “wild, untamed and brutally cruel” in going far beyond cheering for their side, instead yelling abusive things at the European players and wives. A first-tee announcer stepped down after leading a vulgar chant against Rory McIlroy and PGA of America President Don Rea Jr was ousted, in part, for downplaying the fans’ behaviour.
It was embarrassing and ugly and left a bad taste in the mouths of fans who love the tension and rewards of team competition but have no interest in rooting for a hockey fight to break out on the golf course.
That’s why this year’s Presidents Cup looked to be the palette cleanser the game needed. This particular match has always been more like watching your 8-year-old’s jujitsu class than an MMA fight. The Internationals have recorded just one victory, 28 years ago, and they just can’t muster the depth that the American squads possess.
They have enough going against them, and then Snedeker – always viewed as the aw-shucks Opie Taylor of the PGA Tour – goes for the throat on Day 1 by imploring the villagers to take to Medinah with torches.
Not really, of course, but it was just a very odd tone to set when team golf was supposed to return to some sense of civility.
The truth is that Snedeker’s plea fell mostly flat, with the loudest U-S-A! U-S-A! chants produced when a fleet of helicopters flew overhead. Everybody loves a good air show. And, truly, how can anybody get overly worked up when Carl Spackler himself, Chicago icon Bill Murray, brings out the huge and very gold Presidents Cup trophy?
[Actor Bill Murray “drinks” from the Presidents Cup at the opening ceremony. James Gilbert]
Some fans were more fired up than others. Kurt Batten had a front-row seat on the first tee and was decked out in a Stars-and-Stripes golf shirt he bought on Amazon. Batten came in from Kansas City and got passes from the CEO of his company, who is a member at Medinah, and was warned, “You better have some good patriotic clothing.”
“I’m getting a lot of compliments on it,” Batten proudly said of his shirt.
Describing himself as a big golf fan, Batten loudly cheered as the American players were introduced, but he wasn’t ragging the Internationals. He did, however, say that he thought how the fans behaved at Bethpage was just fine.
“The way it should be,” Batten said. “I just think everybody is crazy. It’s kinda like the Waste Management [in Phoenix], everybody should be allowed to go nuts and scream and yell and have a good time. It’s not like a normal golf tournament. It’s more like a hockey game.”
Matt Lowe (left) and Steve Harry dressed in U.S. colours to cheer on the US while admiring the talent of the players on the International team. (Tod Leonard)
Ironically, another fan who was actually wearing a hockey jersey had a differing opinion. Steve Harry, from the Chicago suburb of Oswego, snapped up Presidents Cup tickets as soon as they went on sale and was at Medinah on Thursday with his regular golf buddy, Matt Lowe. They stood out at the ropes at the eighth hole, with Lowe wearing flag overalls and Harry donning the USA hockey sweater of Olympics hero Jack Hughes.
The two said that when they got on the shuttle bus to the course in the morning, they felt a bit out of place as the only people with American gear on. “We thought, ‘Oh boy, we’re going to stand out like a sore thumb.’ But at the first tee one lady was dressed as the Statue of Liberty, so we’re not completely oddballs here.”
Harry said he did wonder what the atmosphere would be like coming to the Presidents Cup after Bethpage.
“I’ll be honest, it was a little embarrassing watching kind of some of the stuff that happened at Ryder Cup, in my opinion,” Harry said. “So as much as I wanted to be a team guy and support the team and be out here and cheer, I didn’t want it to be over the edge.”
Harry believed that Midwesterners would show up in a different way this week, and that certainly appeared to be the case on Thursday in the early going. First, the crowd was sizeable – far more than two years ago at Royal Montreal – with the first hole nearly encircled with fans. As some tell it, they are pro golf-starved in Chicagoland, and beyond some LIV Golf events in the past few years, America’s third-largest city doesn’t get to see the stars very often. (The PGA Tour is looking to change that.)
Among the early groups, the gallery seemed to cheer like they do in any other PGA Tour event, with no nasty comments or yells during shots. Even the players’ wives were lightly guarded inside the ropes after someone threw a cup of beer at Rory McIlroy’s wife at Bethpage.
When the Internationals’ Ryo Hisatsune missed a short putt at the second to lose the hole, there were just a couple of obligatory groans.
“Be respectful of the players; be respectful of the game,” Harry said. “It’s like Tuesday night golf league – if somebody else makes an amazing putt, you give them a high five. We have kids and want them to grow up knowing that golf is a gentleman’s game. Root for your team, but you don’t have to be obnoxious about it. … It’s like watching Tom Kim or Min Woo Lee; they’re good players. But as much as I want to see the USA win, I don’t want to make them feel like they never want to come back here again.”
Harry said he relishes team golf and that motivated him to attend a couple of LIV events. He knows the Ryder Cup has a much larger stature in the game but enjoys the Presidents Cup as something of a warm-up events for players who could become future US team stalwarts.
The talk of the Presidents Cup going away or being replaced has run rampant of late. Some observers believe PGA Tour CEO and commissioner Brian Rolapp is looking closely at an event whose results are so one-sided that it brings long-term viability into question.
Tens of thousands of fans at Medinah and more than a million watching on TV on the weekend might differ. For better or worse, not every team event needs to look and sound like the Ryder Cup, though an International win would certainly help.
So how about just enjoying the Presidents Cup for what it is and the savages can stay home. – TOD LEONARD
FULL GOLF DIGEST PRESIDENTS CUP COVERAGE HERE
5:30am: No, you technically can’t show your partner the line in matchplay.
On the eighth hole of Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele’s Four-ball match against Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune on Thursday, Young found himself in a situation we all find ourselves in during weekend team match play games with buddies. Young was pretty much out of the hole after hitting his approach in the water, but he took his drop anyway and chipped his fourth shot to four feet, setting up a bogey putt. His partner, Schauffele, meanwhile, missed the green with his second then chipped it up to eight feet, right on the same line as Young’s bogey putt.
After some deliberation and calling in a rules official, Hisatsune told Young to pick up his mark. Normally, in weekend games, your partner would ask you “show me the line.” That’s actually not allowed, as NBC rules analyst Mark Dusbabek pointed out right after. You are technically allowed to putt out even if the putt has been conceded, except if that putt is going to aid your partner. It’s one of those rules we all break in our own money games, but it would actually get you in trouble in a legitimate Four-ball competition. According to Rule 23.6, if you putt out and show your partner the line, your score would count without penalty, put your partner’s score would not count for your side.
Schauffele, naturally, missed his eight footer, and the Internationals took the hole with a par. – Christopher Powers
5am: You rarely see a player change putters during the Presidents Cup.
The biennial matches aren’t typically the place for experimenting on the greens. But that didn’t stop Justin Thomas.
Thomas opted for a Scotty Cameron Xperimental 10.5 at Medinah, a notable switch given the stakes and the format. Matchplay leaves little margin for a flat stroke, and a new flatstick is either a spark or a gamble.
The more interesting detail is in the hosel. From the looks of it, Thomas’ version sports a flow neck rather than the jet neck, a change that alters how the face rotates through the stroke and suits a slightly different putting motion.
Whether it’s a one-week experiment or something longer-term remains to be seen. For now, JT is rolling it with something new.
[PHOTO: Ben Jared]
4am: Anthony Kim is getting a documentary.
The details are scarce, but Propagate Content has announced an upcoming documentary on the golfer. And, according to the press release, Kim is involved. “Now, after an improbable return and a victory few believed possible, Kim tells his story for the first time, on his own terms,” the press release reads. “A deeply personal journey of recovery, redemption, and the search for what comes next.” Once a PGA Tour star and a US Ryder Cup hero, Kim had his career put on hold due to a series of injuries, addiction and mental health issues. After nearly 12 years removed from pro golf, Kim returned in 2024 by joining LIV. In February, Kim won the LIV Australia event for his first victory in 16 years.
