Presidents Cup: Team International makes remarkable comeback to draw level with USA on Day 2

Tony Finau could feel a big change when he stepped on the first tee Friday at the Presidents Cup. The horseshoe-shaped grandstand was packed and loud. The gallery was four-deep down the first fairway. The vibe was entirely different.

The biggest difference was the scoreboards. They switched from red to gold.

All of them.

In a stunning turnaround at Royal Montreal, the Internationals flipped the script by sweeping the foursomes session, a performance so one-sided that the Americans led in only one of the five matches, and that was only for one hole.

Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im tied a record for the biggest blowout in the Presidents Cup. Jason Day assured a full point with a chip that was sublime even by his standards. Si Woo Kim polished off a most perfect day with a 15-foot par putt.

Three of the matches didn’t get beyond the 14th hole.

“Incredible,” said Adam Scott, playing in his 11th Presidents Cup without ever winning one. “To come back and show everyone what this team is made of after a tough day out there yesterday is just incredible. … This team knows what it’s capable of now.”

Tom Kim didn’t play and still played a big role. The 22-year-old from South Korea had said on Thursday he thought the crowd was too quiet, and he hoped Canadian fans would “help us out a little bit more.”

That they did, and scorecards filled with gold International leads were not even necessary. The noise across Royal Montreal made it clear what was happening. Inside the ropes, there was nothing the Americans could do about it.

“We definitely felt the energy right out of the gate,” Finau said. “I hit the first tee shot yesterday in our group, and I hit the first tee shot today. It was night-and-day difference, I think just the noise and the energy.”

Patrick Cantlay and and Xander Schauffele, 3-0 in foursomes at the Presidents Cup, never stood a chance against Matsuyama and Im. The Internationals had birdies on their final seven holes, a staggering streak considering they were alternating shots, for a 7-and-6 win.

It tied the Presidents Cup record, last done in 2011 when Scott and K.J. Choi defeated Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in 12 holes. The Americans didn’t help the cause by not hitting a fairway until the eighth hole. Then again, Matsuyama and Im were the equivalent of 8 under for 12 holes.

Right behind them, Scott and Taylor Pendrith made three straight birdies. They never trailed and lost only one hole in a 5-and-4 win over Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa.

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The Canadians delivered, too. Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners won the first two holes in a 6-and-5 rout over Wyndham Clark and Tony Finau. They lost only one hole, and that was only after they had a 6-up lead after 11 holes.

“There was a lot of belief amongst the room, amongst the guys, that hey, we can still do this. We’re still a great team, and we’ve got a lot of golf left to play,” Hughes said. “We came here this morning, we had our heads held high, chin up, and we were ready to play.”

Two matches went the distance, and the Internationals were just as relentless.

Day and Christiaan Bezuidenhout were 1 up over Max Homa and Brian Harman going to the 18th. Day faced a pitch from muddied grass that had been tamped down by spectators. Once of the best chippers in golf, even he was impressed to see it roll out to a foot.

“The lie wasn’t that great. It was wet,” Day said. “So I was just trying to understand the lie a little bit more through the practice swings. Is it going to bounce? Is it going to dig? Just for how wet it is.

“Halfway through the shot I had my hand up, just knowing it was going to be a good one.”

And then Si Woo Kim produced one last cheer. In a match in which 13 holes were halved, Kim and Byeong Hun An were 1 up over Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley going to the 18th when An hit left into a thick, nasty lie in the rough and Kim couldn’t reach the green.

“It was a tough second shot, so I told him, ‘Just get me inside 15 feet and I got it.’ And I knew I had a chance to win,” Kim said.

Henley missed a 25-foot birdie putt. Kim drained a 15-foot par putt to secure another 1-up victory, another full point, and a deadlock going into the weekend.

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Saturday features two sessions — four matches of fourballs, four matches of foursomes — before the 12 singles matches on Sunday.

It’s almost like starting over, and now it becomes a sprint.

“I’m just so proud of the guys, so pumped for them,” International captain Mike Weir said. “To play that well yesterday and not have any points on the board was disappointing. So to see their hard work and them sticking in there and us captains and myself asking them to stick in there and believe, couldn’t be happier.”

It was the sixth time a session had been swept in the Presidents Cup, and the first for the International team since a 6-0 foursomes shutout in South Africa in 2003.

Weir put out three of his best foursomes matches for the Saturday morning fourballs session; U.S. captain Jim Furyk kept three of his fourballs partnerships from Thursday.

“I said yesterday, ‘Their back’s against the wall. They’re going to come out firing,’” Furyk said. “Well, I’m sure my guys are a little pissed off right now back in the team room. The idea is to come out firing tomorrow.”