MONTREAL — For the third time in the Presidents Cup’s 30-year history the Americans have swept the Internationals in the competition’s opening session, 5-0.
The U.S. squad, prohibitive favorites here at Royal Montreal, looked sharp all day, with Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau leading the charge. The pair secured the first foursomes point on the 18th hole against Jason Day and Byeong Hun An. Playing in his fifth team event for Team USA, Schauffele closed out the match in a manner especially fitting for the world No. 2 and two-time major champion. The Day/An pairing needed to win the par-4 18th hole to half the match, and An stuck his approach shot to 4 feet, 6 inches. Schauffele, playing from 139 yards out, launched his own approach to 2 feet to secure the full point for the Americans. Schauffele gained 1.87 shots on the field on Thursday, with his skill around the green as his strongest category.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley put up the next point in the chippiest match of the afternoon against Tom Kim and Sungjae Im. It all started when Scheffler and Kim exchanged words on the seventh green — Kim poured in a 27-footer and celebrated, and then Scheffler made his own long birdie putt to halve the hole, turning around immediately and yelling in Kim’s direction.
“What was that?” Scheffler belted.
Kim made another lengthy birdie putt on No. 8, and proceeded to walk to the next tee box with Im — almost 60 yards away — before Scheffler could step up to his birdie attempt, which he missed. Kevin Kisner, one of U.S. captain Jim Furyk’s assistants and walking with the match, was visibly bothered by Kim and Im’s move, and had a few words with Camilo Villegas, the International assistant captain with Kim and Im.
“I didn’t like what they did on No. 8,” Kisner said, walking off the 11th green at Royal Montreal. “You want to piss off the No. 1 player in the world?”
Any effort to get into Scheffer’s head didn’t have its desired effect. The Americans went on to win two of the next eight holes to win 3&2 on the 16th green, with two Henley birdies sealing the deal.
Electric match play energy on the 7th green as Tom Kim and Scottie Scheffler make dueling birdie putts. ⚡️👀
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Collin Morikawa and U.S team rookie Sahith Theegala earned the Americans’ third point, in a match that extended to the 18th hole against Australian mentor-mentee duo Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee. Theegala and Morikawa clawed their way back from a 1-down deficit that lasted until the 12th hole. Morikawa tied things up with a birdie on the 12th and got the pair to 1 up with another at the 14th. As Theegala’s parents, Murli and Karuna, looked on — sporting customized USA-themed hats with their son’s name on them — the Southern Californian drained a birdie putt of his own at the last to capture his first point in his first opportunity as a Presidents Cup rookie.
The anchor match of Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay vs. Canada’s Corey Conners and Hideki Matsuyama was the next to close out for the Americans. Cantlay was the field’s leading scorer, per DataGolf, gaining 3.89 shots on the field with five birdies.
Then came the 2025 Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, ending the day with a perfect display of the energy that has carried the Americans to their dominant run in this event thus far. Playing alongside U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, Bradley went on a run over the last six holes, sinking 34-, 11- and 19-foot putts, the last on the 18th to beat a fading Christiaan Bezeuidenhout and Taylor Pendrith, 1 up. The 38-year-old Bradley is making his first U.S. team appearance since the 2014 Ryder Cup, and his performance on Thursday will likely spark the conversation of whether he could be a playing captain at Bethpage Black.
(Top photo of Tony Finau, left, and Xander Schauffele: Harry How / Getty Images)
