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U.S. captain staff celebrate comeback win, but they have a lot to still figure out (Ben Jared/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
MEDINAH, Ill. — Brandt Snedeker deserved to revel in the aftermath, his U.S. Presidents Cup team having performed at a historic level by rallying from three points down to win on Sunday with an emphatic singles thumping of an International side looking to pull off a big upset.
The U.S. won 17-13 after earning 9½ of 12 points in Sunday’s singles session, a remarkable outcome after the Americans dug themselves a 10½-7½ hole through three days of foursomes and four-balls.
Amid the euphoria, Snedeker declared that “this team is going to be a problem in Ireland” when the 2027 Ryder Cup comes around at Adare Manor. And while there is no issue with a bit of boastfulness following such an accomplishment, the hope for the American side has to be that such a comeback on Sunday doesn’t mask the problems that the U.S. side still faces.
Also in today’s DD …
The PGA Tour and Trump organization makes for strange bedfellows
Stray Shots on what’s right and what’s wrong with the Presidents Cup
By the time the American side gets to Adare Manor in Ireland next September, it will have been 34 years since any U.S. Ryder Cup team has won overseas.
Along the way there have been myriad issues, not the least of which has been simply a stout European side that might have been difficult to beat regardless of any tactics employed by U.S. team captains and their assistants.
The feeling here has always been and should remain that the best way to win these things is to play better. There are countless times we can point to American players simply not stepping up to their previous levels of talent in these team matches.
Still, to ignore the obvious flaws the U.S. consistently displays in team play would be malpractice at this point.
This is four straight international team competitions now that the U.S. has dug itself a massive hole in the foursomes portion of the event. That it managed to win two Presidents Cup in that span is down to the fact that, yes, the U.S. has a ton of good players and has consistently used its superior depth to outperform the International side in singles.
But that is a dangerous strategy. To expect to win the 8 of 12 points on Sunday is folly. The Americans did, sure. But the International stars can also share in some of that. Veterans Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Scott — with 19 Presidents Cups between them without a victory — craved for such a Sunday scenario. Neither delivered in his match.
Neither did Si Woo Kim nor Min Woo Lee, International players slotted at the perfect spot in the lineup with a chance to change the outcome. Credit to the down-ballot Americans, but there was enough poor play on the other side to suggest that this could have easily gone the other way.
Which brings us back to the format that has haunted the U.S. side going back to 2023 in Rome, when the Americans were wiped out 4-0 in the first morning session and never recovered. They were beaten 7-1 in foursomes.
Last year at Bethpage, it was nearly a repeat. A 6-2 drubbing in foursomes left the Americans again trailing by a staggering 11½-4½ margin heading into Sunday’s 12 singles matches. Amazingly, the U.S. lost just one singles match and came within a missed putt or two of pulling off the biggest comeback in international team history.
There are only 8 foursomes points at the Ryder Cup, along with 8 four-ball points. The Americans typically hold their own in the better-ball format, but the alternate-shot style has stifled them in recent years and it’s puzzling why more time hasn’t been devoted to figuring it out.
Six of the eight players who were wiped out 5-0 on Friday at Medinah played foursomes at Bethpage. The format is not new to them, and the excuse that they didn’t grow up with it is just that — an excuse.
Snedeker was understandably questioned for sitting world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler on Saturday afternoon, but Scheffler is 1-8-0 in his Ryder/Preidents Cup career in foursomes — a perplexing stat given his otherwise amazing abilities. And he didn’t play particularly well in his winning four-ball matches with Sam Burns, though he came through just enough when he needed to.
The bigger issue is why Snedeker and his assistants didn’t work on some partner alternatives to Burns. The two are friendly, sure. But they came into the Presidents Cup 0-3 in foursomes together and the last time they played it was at the 2023 Ryder Cup. Finding a foursomes partner for Scheffler seems imperative going forward. You can’t sit the No. 1 player in the world, regardless of his record.
Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay have proven to be good at foursomes, with a winning record across cups dating to 2019. It’s important to find the right fit to at least be competitive and not allow for such a lopsided outcome next year, where winning on the road for the first time in nearly four decades is going to be immensely more difficult than it was Sunday.
Jim Furyk, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain in 2027, was an assistant last week for Snedeker. So was 2025 Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley. All are likely to be involved in plotting next year’s strategy.
On Sunday night, Furyk was asked a question about any lessons learned from the week. He didn’t really answer it, praising the team for coming back, pointing out the play of the rookies and acknowledging how hard it is to get so much to go right in singles.
For the American side, you hope that he takes more from the Presidents Cup than that and devises a better gameplan for handling partner play.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and President Donald Trump (Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The PGA Tour and the president
Since the event’s inception in 1994, the PGA Tour has invited the U.S. president to take part in home Presidents Cup matches in an honorary role and has also done so for international leaders when the competition is held abroad. It’s called the Presidents Cup, after all.
President Ford was the honorary chairman at the inaugural event in 1994 and various presidents throughout the years have not only taken on that role but even attended the competition.
In 2017 at Liberty National, past presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama were all in attendance early in the week before Donald Trump, in his first term as president, attended on Sunday and was part of the trophy presentation.
As is protocol, President Trump was invited again this year and decided to attend, with the reported stipulation that he be allowed to speak in advance of the first tee shots on Sunday at Medinah Country Club. It ended up being less than 30 seconds and the event carried on. While he presence prevented fans from lining both sides of the first fairway as they had the first three days, all was well as Trump greeted players and caddies before and after.
But it is interesting to see how the PGA Tour deals with the current president. CEO Brian Rolapp was seen standing next to Trump behind the first tee as play began and before the trophy presentation. And the tour has again returned to Trump’s property at Doral in Miami, where this year’s Cadillac Championship was played and will be a Championship Series event going forward.
It is always great for the game when a U.S. president is interested in golf. Presidents Clinton, Bush (both of them) and Obama played their share of golf while in office.
But none of them had a high-profile golf business, too.
The tour made a point to go back to one of his properties despite the Trump organization’s continued embrace of LIV Golf and his own inflammatory words about the PGA Tour leadership a few years ago.
When LIV Golf played its first event at Trump Doral in 2022, Trump played in the pro-am and spoke to reporters afterward. At the time, he was out of office and had clearly sided with the Saudi-backed league. And he didn’t hide his displeasure with the PGA Tour or its leadership.
“The tour mishandled it so badly,’’ Trump said of its decision not to work with LIV while suspending players who participated in LIV Golf events. “The people at the top … something should happen with them. They mishandled it so badly. They not only
