MONTREAL — The Presidents Cup matches were close. The score after the opening session was not the case.
The Americans clung to a one-point lead through five matches Thursday as they delivered shot after shot, putt after putt, until an already lopsided series took a familiar turn.
United States 5, International 0.
The Americans swept the first day of fourball matches at Royal Montreal behind a fiery Scottie Scheffler, late heroics from Xander Schauffele and plenty of help from the international team in the putting challenge.
It was the third time they had shut out the Internationals on the opening day, and the first time since 2000. The Americans had an 11-point victory that year.
“We’re excited about where we’re going – high five, celebrate – and we’re going to keep the pressure on,” said U.S. captain Jim Furyk.
International captain Mike Weir had a plan for the first two days and he didn’t see anything on the course that would make any changes for Friday’s four-a-side matches. Adam Scott has never been part of a winning team since his debut in 2003, and he wasn’t about to give up hope.
“The best news is there is tomorrow for us. It’s not over,” Scott said. “We’re going to have to go out, fight really hard, find that equipment, win a session and go in the right direction. The score line looks tough. But I don’t think there was a big difference today. “.
Three matches reached the 18th green. One of them finished in 17th place. The shortest match was Scheffler and Russell Henley getting the last laugh in a 3-for-2 win over Tom Kim and Sungjae Im.
Scheffler and Henley never trailed in what was the spiciest match of an otherwise flat day, with the Canadian crowd mostly silent after Mackenzie Hughes, who sat out the first session, had a beer on the opening tee to get them going.
Scheffler and Kim are good friends who play a lot of gambling games in Dallas. On the par-3 seventh hole, Kim, 22, holed a putt from just under 30 feet and pirouetted onto the green, shouting, “Let’s go!”
Scheffler matched the birdie to about the same length, and the world No. 1 player turned to Kim and shouted, “What was that?”
It was tough on the next hole when Kim made another long birdie, celebrated wildly, and then he and I headed to the ninth tee without even looking at Scheffler’s putt.
“It’s the same thing I would have done at home if he had made a putt…and he celebrated like that. So it’s all in good fun. We love competing against each other,” said Scheffler. “That’s how it is here. It’s fun to compete and fun to represent our country, and at the end of the game you take your hat off and shake hands.
“We’re friends afterwards, we’re not friends during, I guess.”
The Internationals never felt like they were going to win the session. They weren’t expecting a shutout either.
Taylor Pendrith, one of two Canadians in the lineup, birdied the 12th as he and Christiaan Bezuidenhout took on Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark.
Schauffele and Tony Finau missed 3-foot putts on the 16th and their opener against Jason Day and Byeong Hun An went smoothly.
It could have gone either way. But the situation has only gotten worse for the Internationals.
Bezuidenhout missed three putts from 7 feet in four holes, preventing his team from winning the match. Scott missed a pair of putts into the 12-foot range.
The Americans delivered the goods.
Schauffele atoned for his short miss by hitting his tee shot to 7 feet on a back pin at the par-3 17th for birdie, then hitting his approach to 3 feet on the 18th to close out the match.
“Tony started the party on the front nine and he had my back all day,” Schauffele said. “I thought it was time for me to support him.”
Bradley, next year’s Ryder Cup captain who has passed 10 years since his last cup competition, holed a 35-foot putt on the 13th and secured a 1-up victory over Scott and Min Woo Lee with a putt 10 feet. Emotions were pouring out of him.
“It was 10 years of pent-up energy not playing those games,” Bradley said. “I really had fun today.”
Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala recovered from a 1-over 11-hole deficit when Morikawa birdied the 12th and 14th holes. Theegala secured it with an approach from just inside 3 feet. He made the putt, the first time all day that he got his golf ball from the cup.
In the anchor match, Patrick Cantlay was as relentless as ever and Sam Burns made a 10-foot birdie on the 13th hole that put them at 2, and Corey Conners and Hideki Matsuyama could never take the lead.
The Americans also swept the opening session in 1994. It was the eighth time in the last nine Presidents Cups that they had led after the first day.
On Friday there will be five four-way matches. Furyk keeps two teams together, including Scheffler and Henley, while Cantlay and Schauffele look to build on their record as a quartet.
“The last two road games were close,” Cantlay said. “I think it’s a huge statement. I think we need to build on that tomorrow.”
