Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
The story of the 2024 President’s Cup is the US getting out to a lead and watching the International Team make a stunning comeback. Sunday’s singles matches found all 12 American golfers ranked ahead of their International counterparts for the second time ever. Long range putts made by both teams early swung matches back and forth. Sam Burns 54-foot put took some air out of Tom Kim, who ran all over the green every time he made a putt of significance, which happened quite a bit the first three days of the event. The Americans put up four friendly numbers among the first five players, and with an 11-7 lead, things look like a route for the Americans. By the midway point of the singles competition, the Internationals cut the American’s lead to 5-4. The Internationals eventually led 6-4 before they faded. A sea of American RED late allowed the US to expand a 11-7 lead into a 18.5-11.5 win.
The Winning American’s
The American team is used to big blowouts. Sunday’s 7.5-4.5 singles victory built on a four point lead entering the final day. The US has won ten straight victories dating back to 2003 when the two squads were all-square at 17.5. Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele are the hero’s. They both went 4-1 for the team captained by Jim Furyk.
Eagles
Max Homa was seeded last by American captain Jim Furyk. From the first hole fairway from 103 yards out, he hit an aggressive wedge spin shot in the jar for an eagle.
Blowout Win
Xander Schauffele trailed Jason Day after his birdie on the 421 yard par four. Then Schauffele had four straight birdies and a par to go 5 up over Day rendering this match a near blowout after the front nine. For the week he went 4-1 with the only loss being a blowout at the hands of Matsuyama and Im. When your opponents drill eight birdies in 12 holes in the alternate shot format, what are you going to do. Schauffele was outstanding and set the tone for the Americans who went up 5-0 before the Internationals started to cut into the huge lead.
Holing Bunker Shots
Fans cheered when Scottie Scheffler hit his ball in a left side bunker short of the pin on the 440 yard par four. When Scheffler holed out a moment later, the obnoxious Montreal fans shut up for a minute. Scheffler started his singles match against Hideki Matsuyama with a (3-1) record but he actually had an up and down President’s Cup. Scheffler started his Saturday afternoon round missing short putts and he and partner Brian Harmon went down by three by the sixth hole. Being the number one golfer in the world, he got it together and made some clutch putts and become the first team to come back from a two hole deficit. Matsuyama made a clutch par at the 7th hole to take away Scheffler’s advantage.
Si Woo Kim is clutch
Si Woo came into Sunday with the only winning record (2-1) among international players entering Sunday. With SW Kim and Tom Kim making bomb after bomb on the putting surface on Saturday. Kim had plenty of highs on a brilliant Saturday. His hole-out on 16, followed by the hilariously out-of-context “go to sleep” celebration, but long before that he was dropping bombs left and right, striping the ball off the tee, and bringing massive infusions of energy to his team.
Tom Kim full of bluster, light on results
Sam Burns led his Sunday’s single match over Tom Kim by one stroke four the opening four holes and two strokes for another ten. Then Burns woke up and halved the match. Not what Captain Mike Weir was hoping for. Kim was very boisterous rallying the International fans staked along the course in Montreal. His tie with Burns gave him a 1-2-1 for the weekend. Kim may have a bright future, but fell short in winning matches against the US.
Sea of Red late Sunday
Trailing by a sizable margin is not what the International team wanted to see late Sunday. Four of five late scores with the US just a point away from winning was discouraging. The Internationals trailed by four going into the Singles matches and they went home losing by seven. The International team has not won this competition outright since 21.5-11.5 win in 1997.
Roy J. Akers covers several sports for www.skyviewsports.net