MONTREAL — When the fog finally lifted Saturday morning at Royal Montreal Golf Club, so did the metaphorical lid on the hole for the U.S. side.
U.S. Captain Jim Furyk sent out two of his top horses in the first match and Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa delivered a full point, winning 2 and 1 over Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith.
“I think captain instilled some confidence in me and Collin to go out and get a point and it wasn’t pretty today but we did what we needed to do to get the point, and that’s what’s most important,” Scheffler said.
The U.S. won three of the four four-ball matches to grab an 8-6 lead. The U.S. needs seven more points to retain the Cup.
Scheffler took a little longer to heat up on a cool morning during which play was suspended for an hour and 37 minutes due to fog. The world No. 1 failed to make a single birdie in the first 15 holes. But he stuck his approach at 16 inside 10 feet and drained the putt to put the U.S. 1 up, and canned a putt from the front fringe to seal the 2-and-1 victory.
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“I was getting a little bit impatient out there and I’m standing there on 15 green thinking to myself, ‘What am I doing?’” Scheffler said. “I was able to make a couple birdies when my partner needed me because he was a bit alone out there for a while today, so I was proud to step up when I needed to.”
In the second match, Americans Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele downed the Canadian team of Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes, 3 and 2. The U.S. made birdie at No. 9 to take a 2-up lead at the turn. The Canadians cut the deficit in half with a birdie at 11, but Conners missed a short putt at 12 to lose the hole and the momentum. Schauffele, the winner of two majors this year, said his team was hungry to get rid of the taste of being swept on Friday.
“You’ve heard me before at individual events talking about you’ve got to have some dog in you. When I look around my team room, I see a lot of dogs. We’ve proved that so far,” he said.
Si Woo Kim (R) and Tom Kim of South Korea and the International Team celebrate on the 12th green during Saturday Morning Four-Ball on day three of the 2024 Presidents Cup at The Royal Montreal Golf Club on September 28, 2024 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
The one bright spot for the Internationals in the morning was the South Korean duo of Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim, who pounded Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark, 4 and 3. The Internationals won the first two holes and never looked back. Tom Kim was the emotional leader, fist pumping and getting the crowd charged up. When he made his fifth birdie of the day at No. 14, Kim exploded in celebration and chest-bumped with Si Woo Kim.
“Our chemistry is really good, and we just bonded together,” Tom Kim said of their team effort to get the lone point for the International Team.
In the last match, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns beat Sungjae Im and Hideki Matsuyama, 2 and 1. Burns made birdies at Nos. 6 and 8 to push the U.S. ahead and then Cantlay came to life on the back, pitching in for eagle to win the 12th hole and making three straight birdies beginning at No. 14 to make sure their would be no comeback by the Internationals.
It was an impressive bounce-back performance by the heavily-favored U.S. side that got blanked 5-0 on Friday in foursomes.
“Yesterday was yesterday,” Morikawa said. “It’s not like we’ve never played bad golf and it’s not like we’ve never lost.”
Four more points are on the table this afternoon during foursomes. The first match of the afternoon begins at 2:20 p.m. ET. International Team Captain Mike Weir sent out the same four teams in the afternoon, sitting Min Woo Lee, Jason Day, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Ben A while the U.S. is sitting Keegan Bradley, Wyndham Clark, Tony Finau and Sahith Theegala, who sat both sessions on Saturday.
