Team USA captain Jim Furyk has told his players to use the International team’s jubilant celebrations as motivation after a staggering fightback at the Presidents Cup.
The Americans romped to a 5-0 lead at Royal Montreal in Thursday’s fourballs, but they were brought crashing down to earth by Mike Weir’s inspired international squad in Canada on Friday. The U.S.’s awful foursomes record continued, losing all five matches to level the contest up at 5-5 ahead of Saturday’s action.
The International team’s rout on Friday was even more convincing than the American’s victory on Thursday, with Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele going down 7&6 to Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im in the top match before Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa were dispatched 5&4 by Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith.
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It was a miserable day for Wyndham Clark and Tony Finau, too, losing 5&6 to home favorites Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes. Even world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler could not salvage a point for the Americans, as he and Russell Henley were beaten one up by Si Woo Kim and Ben An.
Max Homa and Bryan Harman lost by the same score to Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Jason Day on a seismic day north of the border, which was rounded off by Kim at the last. The South Korean holed a lengthy putt to clinch the fifth point of the day and spark huge celebrations on the 18th green in front of a partisan crowd.
Furyk told his players to use the moment to fuel the fire within them ahead of Saturday’s matches. “We’re going to have to get ready for tomorrow, we’ve got a tough match on our hands,” he told Golf Channel. “I think they’re well aware of the challenge. We got to watch them jump about on the green and celebrate.
Si Woo Kim put the exclamation point on an epic day for the International team at the Presidents Cup (
Chris Condon/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)
“I hope that sticks with everyone, I hope it’s a pit in their stomach tonight. We’ll regroup and get some good pairings out there in the morning and it’s our turn to come out firing.”
The International team was written off by many pundits after Thursday’s play, with many bemoaning the absence of LIV Golf stars such as Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann from the PGA Tour-run event. But Mike Weir’s men silenced their doubters in incredible style, and Furyk admitted his team could not live with them.
“I said it last night, their backs against the wall, they have to come out firing,” he said. “They weren’t happy about what happened yesterday, and I knew we’d get a big push early.
“Usually, you see some momentum swings in this, and we weren’t able to turn the momentum today. When I look at the scores, it might not necessarily be about us not playing as well as we liked, they played a lot of great golf – my hat is off to them.”
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