Well, the international team recovered. The Americans struggled across the board on Friday at Medinah Country Club in Chicago, and will now have to start the weekend at an event they have dominated from the start with plenty of work to do if they want to retain the Presidents Cup. AdvertisementThe international team dominated on Friday to get out of the initial hole they found themselves in after Thursday’s four-ball session. They won all five foursomes matches during the second day of play at the Presidents Cup and now hold a 7-3 lead entering the weekend. It was the seventh time a team swept a session in Presidents Cup history, and the first since the Internationals swept the foursomes session in 2024. The four-point lead also matches the largest lead the International team has had after two sessions, tying the 1998 event, the only one the Americans have lost. I couldn’t do anything, even with great looks from Wyndham Clark and Scottie Scheffler down the stretch. Now, in the last two Presidents Cups and Ryder Cups, the Americans have a combined record of 6-24-0 in foursomes matches, via Dan Rapaport of Skratch. “They came out and played very well. They made a lot of putts,” U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker said of the international team. “I feel like our guys made a lot of fantastic putts and just couldn’t find the bottom of the hole.” You’re going to have sessions like this on these things. I feel terrible for the guys because I know they tried hard and gave me everything they had today, and it wasn’t meant to be that way.” Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im had the easiest time for the Internationals. After falling behind early, the duo made three birdies in a four-hole stretch to suddenly take a three-hole lead through six in their matchup with Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman. One of those birdies even came after Im sank a putt from the green. An easy 3 and 2 victory to get a point on the scoreboard for the international team. The international team was also walking putts throughout the course, with Adam Scott making a deep one early in his match with Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and the pair jumped out to a three-hole lead while dominating Justin Thomas and Cameron Young. the seventh with a birdie by Min Woo Lee that gave the international team the lead in four of the five matches at that time in a surprisingly dominant start. Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim broke out on the ninth green after a deep putt, which gave them a two-stroke lead on the turn over Patrick Cantlay and day. Scheffler had two great looks down the stretch to tie the match again, and even had a golden chance at the 18th after Taylor sent his drive to the right of the fairway. But Taylor kept his approach to just two feet after Conners hit it from behind the trees to save par, sealing his 1UP victory for that tee shot, but happy to come away with a 4, and lucky that Sam got through,” Taylor said. The only real silver lining for the Americans came from Clark and Morikawa. Clark led his partner to a victory Thursday, and Morikawa made five birdies together to keep pace with Fox and Lee. But Fox continued to turn out the lights and made another long birdie on the 16th hole to put them back on top and ultimately seal the victory for 1UP. That completed the There is still a long way to go at Medinah – on Saturday there will be a doubleheader with fourball matches in the morning and foursomes matches in the afternoon before the 24 golfers face off in singles matches on Sunday – but for now, the Americans have to make a major move if they want to avoid being the first group to lose the cup in almost two decades. “This is at 35, 40 percent. It’s not halftime of a football game yet,” Snedeker said. “There’s a lot of golf left. … I’m fortunate to have these guys in the team room because I know what they’re made of. I know what they’re made of. It’s going to be a long weekend and there’s still a lot of golf left to play.”
