Team USA extended its historic dominance in the Presidents Cup, defeating the international team 18 1/2 to 11 1/2 in Montreal, winning 10 straight games.
Scoring just 4 1/2 points from 12 singles games on the final day, Jim Furyk’s U.S. team won six games, halving the other three teams.
After Xander Schauffele dominated Australia’s Jason Day 4-and-3 in the opening contest at the Royal Montreal Golf Club on Sunday, there was never any doubt about the result.
“My goal was just to set the tone and get (the Americans) on that board as quickly as possible, and I was able to do that,” said Schauffele, who finished the week with a straight 4-1-0 record. He later told NBC. He had a stellar year winning two major championships.
Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa also posted 4-1-0 records for the U.S., while South Africa’s Christian Bezuidenhout (2-1-0) was the only representative with a win.
Since the Cup began in 1994, the United States has won 13 of the 15 tournaments. The only international championships were in Australia in 1998 and in South Africa in 2003, which ended in a draw.
Keegan Bradley outscored South Korea’s Siwoo Kim 1-up in the sixth game, mathematically securing victory for the United States.
“I’m very proud of the team and proud to be here,” said Bradley, who will captain the U.S. team against Europe in the Ryder Cup next year at Bethpage Black in New York.
“We’re going to copy a lot of what (captain) Jim Furyk did this week. He built a culture here for us, and we’re going to carry that over to Bethpage, and I I hope a lot of these 12 are on that team. ”
Australia’s Adam Scott (2-3-0) appeared in every session and had a solid performance in international competition at an individual level, but played for a team that had lost 10 consecutive games and had never tasted a cup victory. That was of little consolation.
After the cup match results were decided, he lost to Collin Morikawa 2:1 in singles and was eliminated in the 10th match.
Fellow Australian Min Woo Lee, who had not been used by international captain Mike Weir for the past two days, drew against Windham Clark in the eighth game, having already lost in the cup competition.
Furyk was pleased with the composure the U.S. players showed late in the game.
“These players were great,” Furyk said. “They have shown great leadership at the top, they have really made the captain’s job easy and they have played their hearts out this week.
“We talked all week about being a dog, being a tougher team. If you look at the back nine holes, the number of holes we won and the number of holes we lost, this week we had the back nine ourselves. I couldn’t help but feel like I owned it, and that was the difference.”
The United States started this week by far the strongest team on paper, with all 12 players ranked within the top 25 in the world, compared to just four internationals.
Canada’s Weir joins a long list of international captains who have lost.
“A lot of the games were close. It’s disappointing not to win. We came together as a team to win this game,” Weir said.
“I’m going to think about what I could have done differently. I think that’s human nature when you don’t win… There’s a lot of time afterwards to do that.”
