MONTREAL — The United States swept the opening session of the Presidents Cup on Thursday for the third time behind a feisty Scottie Scheffler, late heroics from Xander Schauffele and plenty of help from a putting-challenged International team.
The Americans are going for a 10th straight win in this lopsided series, and the Internationals didn’t put up much of a fight in four-balls at Royal Montreal.
It was the first time the Americans swept the opening session since 2000, and they went on to win by a record 11 points.
Scheffler and Russell Henley never trailed in their 3-and-2 victory over Sungjae Im and Tom Kim, the spiciest match of an otherwise flat day before a quiet Canadian crowd after Mackenzie Hughes, who sat out the first session, chugged a beer on the opening tee to get them going.
Scheffler and Kim are good friends who play money games in Dallas. On the par-3 seventh hole, the 22-year-old Kim holed a putt from just inside 30 feet and did a pirouette on the green, screaming, “Let’s go!”
Scheffler matched the birdie from about the same length, and the world’s No. 1 player turned toward Kim and screamed: “What was that?”
It got testy on the next hole when Kim made another long birdie, celebrated wildly and then he and Im walked over to the ninth tee without even watching Scheffler putt.
“It’s the same thing I would have done at home if he had made a putt … and he celebrated like that. So it’s all in good fun. We enjoy competing against each other,” Scheffler said. “That’s what it’s like out here. It’s fun to compete and fun to represent our country, and at the end of the match you take your hat off and shake hands.
“We’re friends after, we’re not friends during, I guess.”
Much like recent history in the Presidents Cup, the competition was tight even if the outcome was heavily in the Americans’ favor.
At one point on the back nine, the U.S. had 1-up leads in all five matches. Taylor Pendrith, one of two Canadians in the lineup, squared his match with a birdie on the 12th. Schauffele and Tony Finau missed 3-foot par putts on the 16th, and their opening match against Jason Day and Byeong Hun An was all square.
It could have gone either way, except the Internationals watched putt after putt, and even one chip by Pendrith, spin out of the cup.
Schauffele atoned for his short miss by hitting his tee shot to 7 feet to a back pin on the par-3 17th for a birdie, and then hit his approach to 3 feet on the 18th to close out the match.
“Tony got the party started on the front nine, and he had my back all day,” Schauffele said. “I figured it was my time to have his back.”
Pendrith and Christiaan Bezuidenhout certainly had their chances against Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark. Bezuidenhout missed putts from 7 feet on the 14th, 16th and 17th holes, any of which would have squared the match.
Going to the final hole hopeful of at least a halve, Bezuidenhout hit his drive in the water and Pendrith put his in the bunker. No matter. Bradley, the Ryder Cup captain for next year, holed a birdie putt from just inside 10 feet to secure a 1-up victory.
Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala rallied from a 1-down deficit through 11 holes when Morikawa birdied the 12th and 14th holes. Theegala secured it with an approach to just inside 3 feet. He made the putt, the first time all day he retrieved his golf ball from the cup.
In the anchor match, Patrick Cantlay was relentless as ever and Sam Burns made a 10-foot birdie on the 13th hole that put them 2 up, and Corey Conners and Hideki Matsuyama could never cut into the lead.
The Americans also swept the opening session in 1994. This was the eighth time in the last nine Presidents Cups they had a lead after the first day.
“The last couple road games have been close,” Cantlay said. “I think it’s a huge statement. I think we need to build on that tomorrow.”
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