Rally caps were the apparel of choice Saturday morning at the 16th Presidents Cup, and both the United States team and the International team had their reasons to feel some satisfaction for their resilience.
Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns won their last three holes to flip the final fourball match at Medinah Country Club’s No.3 Course and give the US a session win, 2½-1½, as they dispatched Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune of Japan, 2 and 1. That cut their deficit to three points, 8½-5½, heading into the four afternoon foursomes matches.
MORE: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler benched for Saturday foursomes
It marked only the third time that the International team had led after three sessions. The last came in 2019 in Melbourne, Australia, when it led 9-5.
The International squad has proven more resourceful than past groups from non-European countries. At one point Geoff Ogilvy’s group trailed in all four matches before scratching out a win and a tie when it looked like the Americans were determined to score a sweep after their 5-0 skunking to the Internationals in Friday’s foursomes games.
Scheffler and Burns led through nine holes, fell behind at 13 when Matsuyama holed a long curling birdie, and then switched up their order of play, having Scheffler, the world No.1 hitting first. “Just changing it up a little bit,” Scheffler said. “I felt like I was getting in my own head a little bit out there, so changed the order and we started hitting some nice shots the last few holes to close out the match.”
It was Scheffler who tied the match at the par-4 15th when he ran in a 21-footer for birdie. He responded with a roar and fist pumps for what was only his second birdie of the day. Burns, No. 8 in the world, took over from there. The Louisiana native dialled up a pair of gorgeous iron shots at the par-3 16th and par-4 17th to four feet and calmly rolled both in for the win, their second together in fourball.
“It just felt like it was the time to pick my guy up and actually contribute to this match,” Burns said.
The South Korean pair of Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim have proven to be an immense annoyance—not only for their shushing gestures to quiet the partisan gallery but also for their ability to back it up.
They improved to 3-0 for the International team by mounting a come-from-behind 2-and-1 victory over Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa after trailing 2 down through eight holes. Si Woo Kim did most of the crowd-quieting with six birdies, including birdies at 16 and 17 from 12 and 17 feet, respectively, that quickly turned a tie in their third full point.
“There’s a lot of confidence there,” Tom Kim said of his partner, who ventured out together in the first foursomes match against Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.
Cameron Young and Chris Gotterup each won for the first time, beating Canada’s Nick Taylor and Corey Conners, 2 and 1, after they won each of the first four holes and then put away the stubborn Canadians with a pair of long birdie putts from the rookie Gotterup.
The opening match undoubtedly felt like a win for the International pair of Min Woo Lee and Snugger Im as they scratched out a tie against Justin Thomas and Jackson Koivun. The U.S. duo led 2 up with four to play but lost the next two holes before the team halved the final three.
“I’m gutted. I just feel like I let him [Koivun] down today,” said Thomas, who still remained unbeaten in fourball at 7-0-1. “I’m bummed, and I told him that, I’m sorry, not only for him, the team. I feel like, if I play and do some things I should have, we would have had a point there.”
The US took early 1-up leads in the first two foursomes matches to begin the final team session.
