U.S. silences crowd with sweep in Presidents Cup’s opening session

MONTREAL – On a day where a “Here we go again” resignation quickly descended on Royal Montreal, the emotions exchanged between Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim stood out even more. Such emotions are an integral part of these international team competitions, where an intensity usually reserved for Sundays is often present from the start.

That wasn’t the case Thursday, though, on a day defined by the United States’ dominance. The visitors exerted themselves early, eliminating much hope for the host team. The United States’ sweep of Thursday’s five Four-ball matches means that what occurred on the front nine of a match featuring Scheffler and Kim, who have a sibling-like relationship, is little more than a footnote, social media fodder that had no impact on the final result.

It started on the seventh hole, where Kim holed a 28-foot birdie putt. Already 2-down in the match, Kim thought the putt represented an opportunity to fire up his side. He turned and fist-pumped toward the crowd before retrieving his ball. Scheffler still had a 27-footer to tie the hole, though, and he made it before turning to Kim and yelling, “What was that?”

It looked like Kim, who earlier this year lost a playoff to Scheffler at the Travelers Championship, may have overstepped, only to be put back in his place by the elder Scheffler.

“From my perspective, looked like he poked the bear,” Xander Schauffele said of Kim in the U.S. Team’s post-round press conference.

What followed on the next hole, where Kim and Im walked off the green after Kim made another long birdie putt (and before the U.S. Team could attempt its putts), made it look like emotions may rule the match. But Scheffler said he didn’t notice the Internationals’ early exit on No. 8, and said his clap back on 7 was just an overflow of his competitive nature.

“It's the same thing I would do at home if we were playing Wolf and he made his first putt of the day and celebrated like the match was over and we had a 2-up lead,” he said after he and Russell Henley beat Kim and Sungjae Im, 3 and 2. “It was kind of a nice moment there for us to keep a little bit quiet It was a fun match. That's really all there was to it.”

The match seemed more subdued after that. Kim and Scheffler both made long birdie putts on 10, but neither offered much emotion after holing out. Henley birdied 14 and 15 to give the U.S. its biggest win of an undefeated day. This is the third time in the Presidents Cup’s 30 years that a team has swept the opening session. The United States did it the previous two times, as well, and went on to win those Presidents Cups 20-12 in 1994 and 21.5-10.5 six years later.

The U.S. used five brand-new pairings to sweep the opening session. Rookies Sahith Theegala and Henley formed victorious pairings with Collin Morikawa and Scheffler, respectively. Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele won the day’s opening match, while Wyndham Clark won alongside Keegan Bradley, who’s playing in an international team competition for the first time in a decade. Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay won the anchor match.

Bradley ended the day by holing a 19-foot birdie putt that guaranteed a sweep of the session. He described his celebration on 18 as “10 years of pent-up energy.” The United States’ dominance of this event appears like it will continue for another edition. The United States has lost just once in 14 editions of this event.

Things get only harder for the International Team with Friday being played in the Foursomes format. Going into this week, the U.S. had outscored the Internationals by just two points in Four-ball in the Presidents Cup’s history. In Foursomes, though, the U.S. has a 37-point advantage.

The International Team won the first hole of this year’s Cup, but its leads were rare after that. It led just nine holes after that, and only one of those leads extended to the back nine.

That was in the second match of the day, where Min Woo Lee and Adam Scott were 1-up through 11 holes. Morikawa and Theegala birdied two of the next three holes, though, to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

The U.S. went wire-to-wire in two matches. Henley, who’s representing the U.S. for the first time as a pro at age 35, birdied the opening hole of his debut and made two more on the back nine to extend his side’s lead.

In the next match, Bradley started and finished the day with birdies to give the U.S. a 1-up win.

“What a great day for the USA,” Bradley said, “but we've got a long way to go.”

Three days remain in the Presidents Cup, but the result may have already been determined.