(Reuters) – The International Team breathed new life into the Presidents Cup as they rebounded from an opening-day sweep with a 5-0 foursomes rout in Montreal on Friday that kept the United States from running away with the competition.
The Internationals, who faced an uphill battle in their bid to beat the U.S. for the first time since 1998 and snap a nine-event losing streak, will now enter Saturday’s two-session day of eight matches level at 5-5 in the biennial competition.
It marked the first time in Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup history that there were sweeps in back-to-back sessions.
“We just wanted to get ourselves back in this and the guys played unbelievable, they really responded incredibly,” said International captain Mike Weir.
Unlike the U.S. points on Thursday, which were secured in matches that were tighter than the scoreboard indicated, the Internationals grabbed theirs in more convincing fashion with three of the matches finishing on the 12th, 13th and 14th holes.
After International players called out the crowd on Thursday for not doing enough to create a home advantage, the team were greeted to a boisterous environment upon their return to Royal Montreal Golf Club.
The Internationals, who need to reach 15-1/2 points to win the biennial matchplay event, rode the lively crowd to an early spate of momentum and never looked back.
In the day’s opening match, Hideki Matsuyama and Im Sung-jae went up early and cruised to a 7&6 win over Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay that tied the all-time largest margin of victory in any Presidents Cup session.
“Yesterday the beginning was not really a nice beginning, but today from the beginning our vibe was vibing,” said Im.
Taylor Pendrith, one of three Canadian players who all made the team as captain’s picks, and Australian Adam Scott put more yellow on the scoreboard with a convincing 5&4 win over Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala.
“We felt it today, felt the energy of the crowd,” Pendrith said after becoming the first Canadian to earn a Presidents Cup point since Adam Hadwin in 2019. “They were pulling for us, and it definitely helped everybody on the team.”
The Canadian duo of Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes then put a third International point on the board with a dominant 6&5 win over Wyndham Clark and Tony Finau that was played out before a rollicking partisan crowd.
“Corey and I won the match, but the crowd was the third member of our team,” said Hughes. “They were huge today. We felt their energy on every tee, every green, walking down every hole. That was big for us, and we need more of that this week.”
South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Australia’s Jason Day padded the International lead with a 1-up win over Max Homa and Brian Harman before the South Korean pair of Kim Si-woo and An Byeong-hun beat Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley by the same margin to finish off the sweep.
There was a moment late in the session where it looked like the Americans might get on the board but then Day nearly holed a pitch at 18 to secure a point before Kim capped the sweep when he drained a 15-footer for par at the last.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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