Six holes. That’s the combined number of times US duos led in five matches during the Friday foursomes in the 16th Presidents Cup. Take away the three consecutive holes that Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark held an advantage before giving up their lead late in a loss, and the number is a hard-to-fathom three. And none of the other leads were beyond the fourth hole.
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It was that kind of day at Medinah Country Club, where the International team pulled off a sequel to its Friday foursomes sweep in Montreal in 2024, though this time the Americans have a lot more to fret about. The 5-0 day gave captain Geoff Ogilvy’s side a 7-3 lead – the largest advantage it has held after Friday since the tournament went to a four-day schedule – and boosted International hopes for only a second victory ever and first on American soil.
As the late, great Chicagoan Harry Caray would bellow, “Holy cow!”
“It didn’t go great,” US captain Brandt Snedeker said on Friday evening. “I feel like our guys played pretty well, all in all. I know the scoreboard doesn’t reflect it, but we’re only one-third of the way through this thing. There’s a lot of golf left to play. … We’ve got a lot of high-character guys in our room.
“I’m excited about this challenge,” he later added. “We have it in front of us for the next 54 holes really.”
With that, here are the takeaways from a day for the Internationals to celebrate and the Americans to recognise a gut check when they see one.
MORE: FULL GOLF DIGEST PRESIDENTS CUP COVERAGE HERE
The US used to be so good in foursomes
The Friday comeback by the Internationals at Montreal was, as they say in soccer, completely against the run of play. At that point, alternate shot was the gimme of the matches, with the Americans’ depth most often winning out when every shot counted. Even after the Friday skunking in 2024, the US still came into Medinah with a 34-point advantage in the format.
That got beefed up by a 3-1 mark in foursomes on Saturday afternoon in Montreal, and that’s where the US can hold hope that this was just bad déjà vu and not a trend. But there is this: Europe outscored the U.S. 6-2 in foursomes at last year’s Ryder Cup.
A curse is born? 
Icon Sportswire
It’ll never rise in Chicago sporting lore to the level of “The Curse of the Billy Goat” if the US loses this, but we should point out that Snedeker donned a Chicago Bears cap all day. For that, he got rousing cheers from the big crowd on the first tee, as did many of the Chicago Blackhawks players who were introduced before Match 2 and traded jerseys with Snedeker and Ogilvy.
Then you remember … Da Bears last won a Super Bowl in 1986, and the Blackhawks last captured the Stanley Cup more than a decade ago. Are the Cubbies – with their one World Series title in 117 years – next on the motivational menu?
One ‘Scotty’ gets a ‘W’ 
Michael Reaves
No one in the history of team golf has suffered more than 46-year-old Masters winner Adam Scott. Eleven previous appearances in the Presidents Cup and 10 defeats and a tie to show for it, with a personal record of 20-28-6 heading into Medinah. A 14-time tour winner deserves better.
He’s also one of the most respected players on the PGA Tour, so you’ve got to be a cold-hearted bastard to root against him in this circumstance. And after another defeat suffered in Thursday’s fourball, with Ryan Fox, Scott finally got a victory with an unlikely partner – South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
Scott had to be concerned about playing alternate shot on Friday with a guy who hadn’t notched a top-10 on the tour since March and could be the only international team competition player ever to be in danger of losing his card for the following season. But they were gifted a lead on the first hole when Justin Thomas and Cam Young made bogey, and after the Americans won No. 2, Bezuidenhout stuffed his approach at the third to set up a birdie. The Internationals went 2 up on the next hole and were never threatened from there in an eventual 3-and-2 victory.
Given what he’s been though in the Presidents Cup, it was also Scott who put a damper on any early celebrations.
“Obviously it’s an exciting day for us, but if we take something from Canada, it’s not to celebrate too hard at this point,” he said. “We’re not even halfway through this tournament. So there’s a long way to go, but it’s a great day for our team.”
Rough start for Young
With two wins this season, including his first Players, Young was the No. 2 qualifier in points and figured to be a strong partner for anyone. But he’s 0-2 this week, with losses alongside Thomas and Xander Schauffele in fourball. Strange, considering Young went 3-1-0 in the losing Ryder Cup at Bethpage, but he’s now 1-4-1 so far in two Presidents Cups.
It should be noted that Thomas suffered quite the performance downfall in 24 hours, going from leading the US in fourball with 3.68 strokes gained to being the worst in foursomes by losing just over four shots.
And Young is far from alone … 
Luke Hales
Equally disappointing to Snedeker has to be the winless records of two team stalwarts in Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. They each lost their fourball matches with different partners, but the shocker came on Friday, when together they were hammered 4 and 3 by Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim in the rematch of Montreal’s best showdown.
The Americans won that one at the wire, but didn’t get close to the 18th for this one, winning just one hole – the second with a measly par—and being 2 down or worse after the ninth. The bad defeat – accentuated by Schauffele’s missed 3-footer for par that ended the match—was only the second in six foursomes matches in the Presidents Cup.
“You do feel, whether you put pressure on yourself to make something happen or a couple weird things happen on the course, you’ve only got 12 holes to like regroup and try to get something done,” Schauffele said. “There’s something to be said about getting off to a good start and being in sync early and then kind of riding the wave through.”
Feeling ‘Foxy’
Admit it. If you’re a certain demographic of a male golfer, you relate to Ryan Fox. Not in skill, of course, since the guy is the reigning Open Championship winner, but in that prominent paunch the Kiwi possesses. Not everybody can be, well, most of the fit players on the PGA Tour, and between Fox having the gait of a truck driver and just seeming like a good bloke, he’s easy to relate to.
So it’s fun to watch Fox enjoy himself, and he had quite the day on Saturday. Coming off a loss, with Adam Scott, in Thursday fourball when Wyndham Clark seemed to make everything he looked at, Fox got to return the frustration against Clark and Collin Morikawa. He and close mate Min Woo Lee prevailed 1 up in the tightest match of the day by overcoming a one-hole deficit through 14 with consecutive birdies.
Fox drained a 13-foot birdie putt at 15 and rammed in a 19-footer for birdie at 16. He also made a testing 4½-footer for par at 18 to secure the match.
“I’ve holed a couple of good putts this year, I think,” Fox said. “I felt it pretty early today with the putter. I didn’t actually get to hit that many putts, to be honest. Then made a nice one for par on 14, and everything just kind of felt good. We both read them really, really well coming down the stretch.I certainly was glad my one on 16 hit the hole.”
