MEDINAH, IL. — Somehow they did it!
The U.S. needed an unlikely eight wins in Sunday’s 12 singles matches to retain the Presidents Cup and extend its winning streak to 11 in the biennial golf matchup against an International team that had players from around the world minus Europe.
That big deficit at the start of the last of the four days of matches at Medinah Country Club didn’t look impossible after the U.S. won four of the first six matches to cut the International’s point lead to 12 ½ to 10 ½. The U.S. still needed to get to 15 ½ points to retain the Cup while the Internationals needed that number to win it. Each match was worth a point.
The final score was 17 to 13, but that didn’t reflect the excitement of the final day. U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker was emotionally drained afterwards. He focused his comments on his young players, rather than the veterans.
“A lot of stuff happened here,’’ he said. “I’m really proud of Jackson Koivun and Jacob Bridgeman.’’
Koivun, the 21-year old fresh out of Auburn University, was the only undefeated player and Bridgeman earned the clinching point. It was also his first point ever in Presidents Cup play.
Chris Gotterup, who won the John Deere Classic – Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour stop – in July joined his playing partner Cameron Young and Justin Thomas to spur the U.S. team’s comeback bid in singles.
Young won the day’s first match convincingly 3&2. Thomas was even better, going 5-up before dispatching Canada’s best player, Corey Conners, 5&3. Then world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, held out of the lineup in Saturday afternoon’s alternate shot session, added a 2&1 win in the fourth match and Gotterup took the sixth in a nailbiter. He was 3-up after eight holes but needed to a two-putt for par on the 18th to get the win.
When Gotterup’s last putt dropped the U.S. was leading in four matches still on the course and two others were tied. A come-from-behind win was not out of the question at that point in the rivalry dominated by the U.S with its 13-1-1 record entering this week’s competition.
The Internationals’ lead at the start of the day was gone when Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa won their matches to make it 13 ½ to 12 ½.
“We knew where we stood,’’ said Morikawa. “We had to go out and finish our business. That’s all we could do.’’
There were still four matches left and only Xander Schauffele’s 4-up lead on Ryan Fox in the last match was a likely win for the U.S. Koivun defeated Si Woo Kim 2-up to give the U.S. a two-point lead and left it up to Schauffele or Bridgeman and Russell Henley, locked in tie matches, to get the point needed to retain the Cup for the U.S. Bridgeman did the honors.
Schaufelle finished his match with a 2 & 1 win and Russell Henley earned a tie in the last match of the exciting week that produced a much more happy result than the last big team event at Medinah. In 2012 the U.S. had a 10-6 lead on Europe entering the final day of the Ryder Cup and couldn’t get the victory.
