MONTREAL — Patrick Cantlay couldn’t hit the putt — he might not have seen the hole — except for the video board lights and lights from the golf carts around the 18th green in the final game of the longest day at the Presidents. Cup.
Then he delivered another “Patty Ice” moment that might have been enough to turn the lights out for the international team on Saturday.
Scottie Scheffler provided big moments late in both of his games, and Cantlay’s 17-yarder in the dark gave the Americans another win and a point, moving them closer to another Presidents Cup victory.
“Great putt,” said American captain Jim Furyk. “If you had to hand-pick the greatest putter on your team, I think Pat would come to mind for a lot of people.”
They won the four-ball and foursomes sessions 3-1. Cantlay and Xander Schauffele won the 18th over Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim, the top-billed South Korean duo, to give the Americans an 11-7 lead at Royal Montreal.
“Xander helped me read it,” Cantlay said of his game-winner in the dark. “It was like a cup going off at a certain speed, and a putt like that will make me sleep better tonight.”
It was Si Woo Kim who went into disgrace on the under 16 green that gave his side hope, and leaned his cheek on his hands in the “Good night” gesture made famous by Stephen Curry at the Paris Olympics this summer.
That was an early call.
Tom Kim said he heard other American players insulting them, although it was not confirmed and Schauffele said he did not know what the 22-year-old was talking about. Most of the games were intense all week. The crowd was loud. It was chippy at times, which is to be expected in these team competitions.
What hasn’t changed is that foreigners are facing a lot of trouble.
They need to win eight of their 12 singles matches on Sunday to equalize and halve the other if they are to win for the first time since 1998 — four years before Tom Kim was born — and only the second time since the Presidents Cup began. in 1994.
International captain Mike Weir sat out four players all Saturday, looking to ride the teams that helped get his side back into the game with a 5-0 shutout on Friday.
One of them was Jason Day, who will be out on Sunday playing with Schauffele.
It’s the same lack from two years ago, and Weir remembers the Internationals — a team facing disruptions in 2022 from losing players defecting to the Saudi-based LIV Golf League — that made the Quail Hollow crowd quiet and the Americans sweat.
“We have a lot of faith in our guys,” Weir said. “I might feel similar to what happened in Charlotte, but I’m just telling you, maybe there’s an improvement in our team’s belief.”
Tom Kim sounded even more determined, bordering on angry.
“I am very happy to go out tomorrow… because we have lost many times, there will be one day that will be our day,” he said. “I believe it is tomorrow.
“If we make a mistake, we will try again. That is who we are. We will keep trying. There will be a time when we will hold the trophy, and it will be soon.”
Scheffler finished a tight four-ball match with two birdies late in a morning session that was delayed 90 minutes by fog, then gave the Americans their first lead in foursomes with a wedge on the 14th that led to another point.
Scheffler started both games slowly. Collin Morikawa kept them in the game at the four-ball until Scheffler hit an arrow from 195 yards to 8 feet for birdie on the 16th, and rolled in a 15-foot putt from the green on the 17th to win.
Russell Henley carried him through the foursomes, especially after Scheffler missed putts from 6 feet and 3 feet as he fell 3 under after five holes. But the world No. 1 brought it too late with a bogey at the 14th for his first lead and a 12-foot birdie at the next to take control.
“I have the best player in the world on my team, and we just stayed there,” Henley said.
Adam Scott, playing in his 11th Presidents Cup without being on the winning side, carried Taylor Pendrith to a 2-1 victory in the foursomes over Brian Harman and Max Homa, the only international point in foursomes.
Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim bested Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark in a four-ball morning with one international victory.
They were all square or leading all afternoon games at one point until the Americans took over, as they often do. Morikawa and Burns holed out early and beat the Canadian duo of Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes on the 18th hole when Hughes hit a bad chip and Conners missed the 12-footer. par putt.
In the early morning tiebreaker, Im birdied Cantlay and Burns three times to keep the game from getting out of hand. Cantlay chipped in for eagle on the 12th for a 2-up lead and twice kept the Internationals from coming back by making putts from 25 feet and 18 feet while on par.
“This guy is an absolute killer,” Burns said of Cantlay.
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