In a day when Royal Montreal was swiftly enveloped in a “Here we go again” resignation, the feelings shared by Tom Kim and Scottie Scheffler were even more noteworthy. These kinds of feelings are essential to these international team competitions, where an intensity typically saved for Sundays is frequently evident right from the beginning.
But on Thursday, a day characterised by American supremacy, that was not the case. The visitors put up a lot of effort early on, giving the home squad little chance. What happened on the front nine of a match involving Scheffler and Kim, who have a bond akin to siblings, is just a footnote and social media fodder that had no bearing on the outcome because the United States won all five of Thursday’s Four-ball matches.
Kim’s 28-foot birdie putt on the eighth hole marked the beginning of it. Kim, who was already two down in the game, believed the putt would give him a chance to rally his team. He turned and gave the audience a fist pump before getting his ball back. Even so, Scheffler still needed a 27-footer to knot the hole, and after making it, he turned to face Kim and exclaimed, “What was that ?”
At the Presidents Cup, Tom Kim and Scottie Scheffler sink lengthy putts for birdies.
Kim appeared to have overstepped, and Scheffler, the older, corrected him. Kim had earlier this year lost a playoff match against Scheffler at the Travellers Championship.
At the U.S. Team’s post-round press conference, Xander Schauffele stated of Kim, “It looked like he poked the bear.”
It appeared as though emotions might control the match when Kim and Im walked off the green following Kim’s second long putt for birdie (and before the U.S. Team could attempt its putts). However, Scheffler said he was unaware of the Internationals’ early elimination on No. 8 and that his outburst of competitive nature was the only reason for his clapback.
“It was kind of a wonderful moment there for us to be a little bit calm. If we were playing Wolf at home and he made his first putt of the day, we would rejoice as though the match was over and we had a 2-up lead. The match was enjoyable. That’s really all there was to it.” He commented after defeating Kim and Sungjae Im 3 to 2 alongside Russell Henley.
After that, the contest appeared to be more muted. Both Kim and Scheffler made lengthy putts for birdie on number 10, but neither showed much emotion following their hole-out. Henley made birdies at 14 and 15 to give the United States its greatest victory of the day. In the thirty years of the Presidents Cup, this is the third occasion a team has swept the first round. The United States had won the Presidents Cup 20-12 in 1994 and 21.5-10.5 six years later after doing the same the two prior times.
The United States won the first session with five entirely new pairs. Rookies Henley and Sahith Theegala teamed up with Scheffler and Collin Morikawa, respectively, to win. The first match of the day was won by Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele, while Keegan Bradley—who is participating in an international team competition for the first time in ten years—and Wyndham Clark emerged victorious. The anchor match was won by Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay.
Bradley completed the round with a 19-foot birdie putt that ensured the session would be swept. He called his 18th birthday celebration “ten years of pent-up energy.” It is likely that the United States will continue to dominate this competition in its next iteration. In the 14 iterations of this competition, the United States has only lost once.
With Friday’s match being played in the foursomes style, things will only grow more difficult for the international team. Prior to this week, the United States’ advantage over the Internationals in Four-ball at the Presidents Cup was a mere two points. However, the United States leads by 37 points in foursomes.
The International Team won the first hole of this year’s Cup, but their leads were rare after that. After that, it led in just nine holes, and only one of those leads carried over to the back nine.
That occurred in the second match of the day, as Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee led 1 up after 11 holes. Morikawa and Theegala birdied two of the following three holes, though, to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
In two games, the U.S. led from start to finish. At thirty-five, Henley is playing for the United States for the first time as a professional. He opened his debut with a birdie and added two more on the back nine to increase his team’s advantage.
Bradley opened and concluded the round with birdies to give the United States a one-up victory in the following match.
“Though it’s a great day for the USA, there is still much work ahead.” Bradley said.
The Presidents Cup is still three days away, but the outcome might already be known.
