Americans achieve biggest road win and capture 10th consecutive President’s Cup

MONTREAL (AP) – Xander Schauffele led the red scores Sunday with four straight birdies and the Americans won the President’s Cup for the 10th straight year, making the outcome as inevitable as ever.

Sam Burns finished the week unbeaten, Russell Henley made his impressive Presidents Cup debut with a win and Keegan Bradley — Ryder Cup captain next year – Si Woo Kim gave the deciding point when he missed the 10-foot putt on the 18th hole.

Max Homa completed the scoring by scoring the first point of the week; He went 2 to 1 against Mackenzie Hughes to make the score 18 1/2-11 1/2; this was the largest margin of victory on the road for the Americans. Royal was just north of the Montreal border.

“Wow, that was incredible,” said Bradley, who hasn’t played on a U.S. team in 10 years. “The last time I played I was the one who lost the Ryder Cup. If this is my last outing as a player, maybe it is, I’m happy about that.”

Everything needed to go right for the Internationals at Royal Montreal. All they could do was have a good fight, tighter matches, but still no trophies.

Their only victory since these matches, which involved players from everywhere outside Europe, came at Royal Melbourne in 1998; It wasn’t that long ago that Tiger Woods was making his President’s Cup debut. The USA’s winning streak dates back to 2005.

“Most of these games were very close,” international captain Mike Weir said. “It’s disappointing not to get a win. We put our team together to win this thing and when you don’t get a win it’s disappointing, but there’s a lot of great things to be taken away from us.”

At least 17 holes were played in 20 of the 30 matches.

The Americans got a win from captain Jim Furyk, who was at the helm in France when they lost to Europe in the Ryder Cup five years ago.

“Those players were amazing,” Furyk said. “It was a really good group of 12, an easy group. I had great leadership at the top. They really made the captain’s job easy and these guys played their hearts out this week. “They played really well on the back nine.”

Furyk dispatched Schauffele in his opening match against Jason Day, and the swaggering Californian made five birdies in eight holes to take early control. It ended on the 15th hole.

“All 12 of our players can compete,” Schauffele said. “My goal was just to set the tone, get in the red as early as possible on the board, and I was able to do that.”

He placed a 45-foot birdie putt on the opening hole where Day was in close birdie range, took his first lead with a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fifth and never took his foot off the gas.

Burns was the only player to go undefeated. Tom Kim missed his 6-foot birdie putt for the lead on the 16th hole and holed his putt to within 10 feet on the par-3 17th hole. Burns answered with a 4-foot wedge to match birdie, and the American made a half-point parlay on the final hole to bring the Americans even closer.

Kim was the spark for the Internationals with the way he nudged Scheffler with his fist pumps and celebrations in the opening session. He said the tide would turn at some point, and the 22-year-old South Korean firmly believed that day would be Sunday.

Not just this Sunday.

“I feel like when you lose a lot of times, there’s a story that people always come back to. “Winning doesn’t last forever,” Kim said. “There will be times when the lips will go our way. A few breaks, a few jumps will do us good and that will make a difference. We’re playing great and sometimes we fall short, but I’m not losing hope.”

The International Team secured a point in the battle for the Masters champions as Hideki Matsuyama knocked out Scottie Scheffler and Corey Conners earned an easy victory over Tony Finau. However, they were trailing 11-7 at 12 singles. It would never be enough.

They had won just 12 singles sessions in three Presidents Cups, trailing by six or more points each time.

Now the Internationals must wait another two years until the 2026 games will be played in Medina, outside Chicago.

The Americans have avoided a trophy — they lost the Ryder Cup to Europe outside Rome last year for the first time since 1998. Even though the matches were tighter, winning this gold cup never seemed like a difficult task.

Adam Scott will be 46 in two years’ time and although he may not be on the winning side, he still has a chance to play in his 11th and final President’s Cup. He had to play the last hour of his match against Collin Morikawa, losing 2 and 1, he knew it wouldn’t matter.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf