Team USA delivered a day one-thrashing of the International side to make a dominant start to their attempt to win a 10th successive Presidents Cup.
For just the third time in the 15th staging of the biennial teams competition, the USA produced a round-one clean-sweep to establish a commanding 5-0 lead in the fourballs going in to Friday’s foursomes.
It marks a dream start for US captain Jim Furyk’s bid to retain the title at Canada’s Royal Montreal Golf Club and already leaves Mike Weir’s International team with a huge task to turn the match around over the next three days.
Despite Thursday’s one-sided overall scoreline, three of the five fourball matches did go down to the 18th hole with the International side left to rue a succession of missed opportunities and gilt-edged birdie putts on the back nine.
Xander Schauffele and debutant Tony Finau – who chipped in brilliantly from the fringe at the 14th for one of the round’s standout shots – were paired together in the opening match and delivered the USA its first point to set the winning tone, despite a late wobble against Jason Day and Byeong Hun An.
‘We’re friends after, we’re not friends during’ – Scheffler and Kim’s flashpoint
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler and playing partner Russell Henley delivered the day’s most comprehensive win, beating South Korean pair Tom Kim and Sungjae Im 3&2, yet the match still contained the round’s main point of intrigue.
Kim and Scheffler are known to be good friends away from the course but their match appeared to briefly get heated on the seventh and eighth holes.
Already two down by the seventh, a jubilant Kim shouted ‘let’s go!” in delight after rolling in a 21-foot birdie putt before Scheffler then roared ‘what was that?’ towards his friend in response moments later after sinking his own similar putt to halve the hole.
Kim then celebrated strongly again when he sunk an even-longer putt to birdie the eighth before, controversially, he and Im left the hole to head to the adjacent ninth tee box before Scheffler had completed his own attempt at birdie.
Things got heated mid-way through Scheffler and Russell Henley’s match aginst Sungjae Im and Kim
Scheffler subsequently missed his putt to give the International side the hole win, bringing their deficit at the time back to just one. Kim and Im failed to win another hole thereafter as the International pair’s challenge faded, with a half on the 16th ultimately confirming the US pairing’s comfortable win.
On Kim and Im leaving the eighth hole early, Sky Sports Golf’s Paul McGinley said: “That’s bordering on bad behaviour there. That’s disrespectful in my opinion. I know it’s competitive out there but it certainly shows you there’s an underlying edge here. It’s not all fun and games.”
Scheffler played down the tension with Kim after completing the round.
“That was a bit of fun,” said the American.
“It was the same thing I would have done at home if he had made a putt and we were playing ‘wolf’ and he celebrated like that. So it’s all in good fun, we enjoy competing against each other, and that’s what it’s like out here.
“It’s fun to compete and fun to represent our country, then at the end of the match take your hat off and shake hands. We’re friends after, we’re not friends during, I guess!”
Scheffler’s point was his first in the Presidents Cup having suffered three loses and one draw on his tournament debut at Quail Hollow Club in 2022.
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Mackenzie Hughes hilariously got the crowd fired up by chugging a beer on the first tee at the Presidents Cup.
Can the International side turn it around?
Thursday was the first time since 2007 – coincidentally the only other occasion the Presidents Cup was staged in Montreal – that a side had lost all matches in a single session.
Weir’s 2024 team now face a pivotal Friday in the foursomes if they are to still harbour any realistic ambitions of claiming a first International triumph in the competition since 1998.
“It’s just a hammering today,” said Sky Sports Golf’s Wayne Riley.
“It’s closer [in terms of the score in each match], but it doesn’t matter, it’s still 5-0.
“It’s not pretty but all is not done. [Friday] is massive though and the International team have to come back and win every match.”
And Rich Beem, the 2002 PGA champion, added: “I don’t understand how the US side did it. It didn’t look like they were going to win it by that much. It looked a bit closer early in the matches but all of the sudden America kept putting all kinds of pressure and the Internationals couldn’t respond.”
Who will win the Presidents Cup? Watch the 2024 contest from September 26-29 live on Sky Sports. Live coverage continues on Friday from 6pm on Sky Sports Golf. Stream the Presidents Cup and more with NOW.
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