Bleak sweep: Yanks deliver early road kill
Despite close matches, Team USA sweeps internationals 5-0 to start Presidents Cup
Canadian fans turned out but didn’t sway the outcome (Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
For the first time, Adam Scott last year had the opportunity to witness a Ryder Cup in person. The Australian, who is playing in his 11th Presidents Cup this week, was struck by the passion, by the emotion, but the sense of pride in playing for the tour on the European side.
Scott visited the Ryder Cup in Rome last year, where the Europeans cruised to victory.
Trying to capture those same feelings has proven to be difficult for the International side in the Presidents Cup, now 30 years into its run and with the Americans still treating it like the old days of the Ryder Cup, when they so effortlessly and easily beat up on their Great Britain & Ireland counterparts.
Thursday’s 5-0 whitewash at Royal Montreal won’t help with this knock-off competition.
While all of the matches were tight going into closing holes — with three of them getting to the 18th and another to the 17th — the Americans swept all of them, getting the kind of advantage they can only dream about in the Ryder Cup.
“The difference has been it hasn’t been competitive,” Scott was saying before the tournament. “That’s been very harsh on our team I have to say. There have been some close calls for our team going back to ’05, ’03, ’15. There’s a bit of a gap. Even in Melbourne (in 2019) we were leading going into the last round.
“I’m being very harsh, but when it comes down to what’s on paper we’ve lost a lot. That’s why it hasn’t had the spark. Not quite the sparks flying like the Ryder cup. That’s very appealing to watch I think. That’s probably the difference… I’m pretty hopeful we’re putting together a really formidable team this year.”
It is somewhat hard to fathom that Scott, the 2013 Masters champion, is playing in his 11th Presidents Cup for the International side and has never won. He was part of the 2003 team that played to a riveting tie in South Africa, where Woods and Ernie Els actually played three holes of a sudden-death playoff to try and determine a winner before captains Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player agreed to share the Cup.
Since then, it’s been nine consecutive victories for the Americans, including a couple of blowouts that makes it difficult for the event to gain any traction.
In terms of popularity and prestige, the Presidents Cup lags behind the high-profile event it is modeled after, due mostly to its lack of history. The Ryder Cup has 80-plus years of tradition going for it, a healthy amount of “bad blood” between the participants and an intensity born out of immense pride from the European Union, which has not lost a “home game” since 1993 and sent the Americans reeling against last year in Rome.
The Presidents Cup may never match the Ryder Cup, but it has nonetheless emerged as an excellent international golf event that was born out of the desire three decades ago to offer an opportunity for players outside of the United States and Europe to have a Ryder Cup-like experience.
But at some point, the International side has to step up.
And there was clearly a lack of sizzle Thursday at Royal Montreal, despite having three Canadians on the team, a Canadian legend in Mike Weir as captain, and another Canadian legend in hockey star Wayne Gretzky on the first tee.
The Canadian fans, unfortunately, didn’t act like they were at a hockey game, showing their nice side and not getting rowdy enough. The Americans can take it, but it was almost too easy of an atmosphere.
Tom Kim would like a more noise for the “home” team (Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
“I think it was a little too quiet today being on home soil,” said South Korea’s Tom Kim, who tried to stoke a bit of passion into the proceedings when making a birdie putt while playing in against Scottie Scheffler — only to have Scheffler hole it on top of him. “I don’t think the fans were really — I wish they would have helped us out a bit more, especially being in Canada. I know how much they love golf.
“I’m definitely expecting more crowds to be louder and for them to be on our side.”
They also need to give the fans something to cheer about.
The International side could never make the big putt to swing momentum, and only briefly got ahead. By the back nine, all five matches were close, but the Internationals were down in all of them. And then the Americans held them off.
Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele defeated Ben An and Jason Day 1 up. Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala knocked off Scott and Min Woo Lee 1 up. Scheffler and Russel Henley defeated Kim and Sungjae Im 3 and 2. Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark prevailed 1 up over Taylor Pendrith and Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay defeated Corey Conners and Hideki Matsuyama 2 and 1.
“Reality is it wasn’t a great day, but it’s like the first period of a hockey game the way I look at it,” Weir said. “You’re down, but there’s a long way to go. Still significant sessions left. That’s the way we’re looking at it.”
The International side is faced with needing to win 15½ of the remaining 25 points to win for the first time since 1998.