MONTREAL — The Presidents Cup games were right around the corner. The scores after the opening session were not available.
The Americans held on to 1-up throughout the five games Thursday as they hit shot after shot, putt after putt, until the already-broken streak took a familiar turn.
United States 5, International 0.
The Americans swept the first day of four games at Royal Montreal behind Scottie Scheffler’s stunner, late heroics from Xander Schauffele and plenty of help from a challenged international team.
It was the third time they had shut out Internationals on the first day, and the first time since 2000. The Americans went on to win by 11 points that year.
“We’re happy with our start – high fives, celebration – and we’re going to keep pushing,” said US captain Jim Furyk.
International skipper Mike Weir has had a busy schedule for the opening two days and sees nothing on the course to make changes to the foursomes on Friday. Adam Scott hasn’t been on a winning team since his debut in 2003, and he wasn’t about to lose hope.
“The best news is tomorrow for us. It’s not over yet,” said Scott. “We’ll have to come out, fight hard, get that gear, win the session and go in the right direction. The score line looks tough. But I don’t think there was that much difference in it today. .”
Three plays to the 18th green. One over on No. 17. The short game was Scheffler and Russell Henley getting the final say in a 3 and 2 victory over Tom Kim and Sungjae Im.
Scheffler and Henley never followed through on the best of the game on another flat day, the Canadian crowd mostly quiet after Mackenzie Hughes, who stayed in the first round, drank a beer in the opener to keep going.
Scheffler and Kim are best friends who play a lot of cash games in Dallas. On the par-3 seventh hole, the 22-year-old Kim holed the putt from within 30 feet and did a pirouette on the green, shouting, “Let’s go!”
Scheffler parred birdie from the par, and the world No. 1 turned to Kim and yelled, “What’s that?”
There was evidence on the next hole when Kim made another long birdie putt, swinging uncontrollably and he and Im advanced to the ninth without a Scheffler putt.
“It’s the same thing I would do at home if you made a putt … and you celebrated like that. So it’s all fun. We enjoy competing with each other,” Scheffler said. “That’s how it is outside, it’s fun to compete and it’s fun to represent our country, and at the end of the game you take off your hat and shake hands.
“We’re friends after that, not friends at the time, I guess.”
The Internationals never looked like they were going to win the session. They also did not expect to be closed.
Taylor Pendrith, one of two Canadians on the list, birdied the 12th as he and Christiaan Bezuidenhout squared off against Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark.
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. But it was worse for the Internationals.
Bezuidenhout missed three 7-foot putts on the fourth hole that kept his team from breaking even. Scott missed two putts from 12 feet.
The Americans deliver the goods.
Schauffele atoned for his short miss by hitting his shot to 7 feet from the back pin on the par-3 17th for birdie, then hit his approach to 3 feet on the 18th to close out the match.
“Tony started the party before nine and had his back to me all day,” Schauffele said. “I thought it was my turn to get his back.”
Bradley, next year’s Ryder Cup captain who has marked 10 years since his last Cup appearance, holed a 35-foot putt on the 13th to pull within 1 of Scott and Min Woo Lee with a 1-putt. 10-foot. Emotions were pouring out of him.
“I’ve been working hard for 10 years without playing these,” Bradley said. “I just had a blast today.”
Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala rallied from 1 under through 11 holes while Morikawa birdied the 12th and 14th holes. Theegala has protected it by just 3 feet. He made the putt, the first time all day that he returned his golf ball to the cup.
In the anchor game, Patrick Cantlay never stopped and Sam Burns made a 10-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole that put them 2 up, and Corey Conners and Hideki Matsuyama couldn’t cut the lead.
The Americans also swept the opening session in 1994. This was the eighth time in the last nine Presidents Cups that they led after the first day.
On Friday there are five foursomes matches. Furyk keeps two teams together, including Scheffler and Henley, with Cantlay and Schauffele looking to build on their foursomes record.
“The last few games have been close,” Cantlay said. “I think it’s a big statement. I think we need to build on that tomorrow.”
Source link
