The United States continued its historical dominance of the Presidents Cup when it beat the International team 18 1/2 to 11 1/2 at Royal Montreal Golf Club on Sunday for its 10th consecutive victory in the event.
Needing to pick up only 4 1/2 points from the 12 singles matches on the final day, the U.S. won six and halved three others.
The result was never really in doubt after American star Xander Schauffele posted an emphatic 4-and-3 victory over Australian Jason Day in the opening contest.
“My goal was just to set the tone, get (American) red up on that board as early as possible and I was able to do that,” Schauffele told NBC after ending the week with a 4-1-0 record in a continuation of a stellar year in which he won two major championships.
Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa also went 4-1-0 for the U.S., while South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout (2-1-0) was the only International with a winning record.
The U.S. has now won 13 times in the 15 playings of the Cup since its inception in 1994. The lone International victory came in Australia in 1998, while the 2003 event in South Africa was tied.
Keegan Bradley made U.S. victory mathematically certain when he outlasted South Korean Si Woo Kim 1 up in the sixth match.
“I’m so proud of the team and proud of being here,” said Bradley, who will captain the U.S. team against Europe in next year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
“We’re going to copy a lot of what (captain) Jim Furyk did this week. He set a culture here for us, and we’re going to carry that over into Bethpage, and I hope a lot of these 12 are on that team.”
Furyk was delighted at the poise his players showed late in matches.
“These players were amazing,” Furyk said. “I had great leadership at the top. They made the captain’s job really easy, and these guys played their hearts out this week.
“We talked about being a dog all week, being the tougher team. Those back nine holes, if you look at how many holes won and lost, I’ve got to feel we owned the back nine this week and that was the difference.”
The U.S. started the week by far the stronger team on paper, with all 12 players ranked among the top 25 in the world, compared with only four of the International team.
Australian Adam Scott (2-3-0) performed reasonably on a personal level, but that was scant consolation as he played on his 10th losing team in a row.
And Mike Weir of Canada joined a long list of losing International captains.
“A lot of these matches were so close. It’s disappointing not to get a win. We put our team together to win this thing,” Weir said.
“I’m going to be thinking about things I could have done differently. I think that’s human nature when you don’t win … I’ll have plenty of time to do that after.”
