International Team flip the script, sweep Foursomes session to tie Presidents Cup

MONTREAL – Malory Conners didn’t recognize her husband. Not this version, at least: the club-twirling, fist-pumping, Energizer bunny that jaunted around Royal Montreal Golf Club on Friday.

The normally subdued Conners made a promise to himself before this week that he wouldn’t stay in his shell. That’s what went wrong two years ago at Quail Hollow when he went 0-4 and the Internationals lost yet another Presidents Cup. If Conners wanted a different result, he needed to be different.

Friday felt as different as it could get. Conners bounded off the par-3 13th green, roaring out to the packed grandstand that surrounded the green. Moments earlier, he had stuffed his approach to 5 feet to secure a dominating 6-and-5 Foursomes win alongside his close friend and partner Mackenzie Hughes.

“Who are you!?” Malory shouted to Conners as he approached. He smiled and shrugged.

Maybe the better question was: Who was this International team? And where did they come from?

Conners’ transformation foretold a wider reversal that flipped the Presidents Cup on its head. After one of the lowest lows in the International Team’s three-decade history, a 5-0 beatdown on home soil Thursday, they delivered an even more convincing romp of their own.

The Internationals swept the board in Friday’s Foursomes, historically their worst format, delivering an unprecedented response as they won every match to tie the Presidents Cup at 5-5. The Internationals won three of Friday’s five matches by at least a five-hole margin, including a record-tying 7-and-6 win by Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im.

“This team knows what it’s capable of now,” Adam Scott said.

They know they can win. That much felt unfathomable 24 hours ago. Now it’s teetering on probable, a wild 180-degree turn as the momentum fully shifts in the Internationals’ direction.

They were underdogs to begin the week and their obituaries were already being drafted after getting blanked in Thursday’s opening session. Much of the day had a funeral feel, as the crowds watched helplessly as the Americans grabbed control and kept it. The International Team said all the right things in the aftermath. They believed they could come back and reverse a deficit that nobody had before.

They were vindicated. Friday felt different from the jump. The crowds were bigger and their roars were louder. The Canadian anthem reverberated throughout the first tee as fans answered the players’ calls to bring more energy. The players responded with the golf to match.

Matsuyama and Im led off by beating the Americans’ best Foursomes team – Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay – by that record margin in the opening match, tying the shortest match in Presidents Cup history.

“Our vibe was vibing,” said Im, a poster boy for the Internationals resurgence. Im failed to make a birdie during Thursday’s Four-ball session. He and Matsuyama made eight birdies in 12 holes of Foursomes.

It was just that type of day. The Internationals led for 59 holes across the five matches. The Americans led for one.

The day crescendoed with Conners and Hughes, the Canadian countrymen paired together in a leap of faith by Internation Team Captain Mike Weir. He hoped that their bond – and support – could be part of an historic turnaround. The former college teammates at Kent State won the first two holes and never looked back. It took Tony Finau and Wyndham Clark until the 12th hole to win a hole. By then it only cut the deficit to 5-up. The match ended a hole later as Conners stuck his shot close and Hughes holed the birdie putt.

“Just the most unbelievable day,” Hughes said.

Fellow Canadian Taylor Pendrith wasn’t far behind. Playing alongside Adam Scott, the duo made three straight birdies on the front nine to take a 3-up lead through six holes on Americans Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa. The Internationals extended their lead to 5-up with birdies on 10 and 12 before closing out the match, 5 and 4.

“No doubt yesterday was a tough day for us. The scoreboard, which is the only thing that matters, looked terrible,” Adam Scott, who broke the record Friday for most points won by an International Team player, said. “... I think we all came out here today playing for our own pride really.”

If you needed any more convincing that everything had changed, the 18th hole provided it. Much of Thursday’s despair for the International Team played out on the final hole, where the Americans secured three of their victories. It also played a part in the Internationals’ reversal.

With a 1-up lead in hand, Jason Day nearly chipped in from a difficult spot behind the 18th green, delicately flopping his ball onto the elevate putting surface and feeding it close to the pin. Brian Harman’s chip-in attempt ran by to secure another International victory.

Si Woo Kim delivered in another crucial moment less than 15 minutes later on the same green.

With Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley already in for par, Kim stood over a 15-foot par putt that could secure the full five-point reversal. A miss meant one small piece of solace for the Americans to take into Saturday.

Instead, Kim poured in a 15-foot par putt of his own to tie the hole and solidify a 1-up victory. He dropped his putter as the ball fell through the hole and shouted as Tom Kim ran onto the gren and lept into Kim’s arms.

There would be no silver lining for the Americans, not on this day.

This was the Internationals’ day. The day the Presidents Cup roared back to life.