Fourteen years after Europe staged a miraculous Ryder Cup rally, the U.S. completed its own comeback at Medinah:
The Turnaround in Chi-Town.
Down three points to start Sunday, the Americans orchestrated the most dominant singles performance in an international team competition, taking 9.5 of a possible 12 points, to complete the largest Presidents Cup comeback ever, win 17-13 and continue their stranglehold on this competition.
“I told the guys last night that funny stuff happens here; Medinah has a history of funny things happening,” U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker said. “Sure enough, they went out and played their asses off today. I’m so damn proud of those guys.”
The U.S. is now 14-1-1 in this event, while the Internationals, who led Saturday night on away soil for the first time ever, will again go back to the drawing board.
“The plan was pretty good; I wouldn’t have changed anything today,” International skipper Geoff Ogilvy said. “Sometimes that just happens. Beating the U.S. in singles in the U.S. is a really hard thing to do.”
Ogilvy’s squad seemed to have all the momentum after four sessions, while Snedeker was already falling on his sword, saying, “I don’t think I’ve done the best job for them in that room.” But when Cameron Young closed out Ryo Hisatsune, 3 and 2, the Americans led in eight of the other 11 matches.
The turnaround had begun.
10.5-8.5.
Justin Thomas jumped on Corey Conners by winning each of the first four holes. Thomas finished off Conners with six birdies in 15 holes, the 5-and-3 victory earning Thomas his first singles point in four tries and improving his overall Presidents Cup record to 12-4-3.
10.5-9.5.
Tom Kim polished off a nice 4-1 week by dispatching Wyndham Clark, 3 and 2, in a match that Kim didn’t lead until the 10th hole.
11.5-9.5.
Scottie Scheffler responded to being benched on Saturday night by knocking off Nico Echavarria, who played just one team session. Scheffler birdied five of the first 10 holes, though his match was most memorable for him conceding a 32-footer from off the green to Echavarria after a spectator yelled in Echavarria’s backswing on the tee at the par-4 14th.
“To be honest with you, I don’t even really want to talk about it,” Scheffler said. “I think there’s no real place for that in our game. I think we just leave it at that.”
The two ended up tying the hole, and while it could’ve backfired for Scheffler after Echavarria won the 16th to cut the deficit to 2 down, Scheffler ended it on the next hole, 2 and 1. Scheffler’s 3-1 record marked his best in six Cups.
11.5-10.5.
The Internationals’ top player in terms of strokes gained for the week, Sungjae Im moved to 2-2-1 with a 3-and-1 win over Sam Burns, who carded two double bogeys.
12.5-10.5.
When Collin Morikawa hooped a 30-footer at the par-4 15th to tie his match against Hideki Matsuyama, taking the remaining gold off the leaderboard with seven matches still on the course, Data Golf’s match probability lowered the Internationals’ chance of victory to 13.2%, which was lower than what they started the event (16.2%). At one point late in Saturday morning fourballs, Ogilvy’s team had a 65.2% chance of winning.
That percentage kept dwindling, too.
After Chris Gotterup hung on for a 1-up victory over Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Patrick Cantlay beat Adam Scott, 2 up, in match he never trailed either. Scott, in now a dozen winless appearances in this event, became the first player to lose 30 matches this week (21-31-6).
12.5-11.5 and 12.5-12.5.
Matsuyama missed his drive right at the par-4 18th, and the PGA Tour’s best chipper in recent years then hit his 30-yard pitch 15 feet past the hole and missed the par save, setting up Morikawa with a 3-footer to grab another point. Morikawa sank it, and the U.S. suddenly had its first lead since Friday.
13.5-12.5.
When Min Woo Lee missed a 4-footer at the par-3 16th and lost the only International lead left on the course, Data Golf’s win-probability model dropped the visitors all the way to 0%.
The rest was just a formality.
Hotshot rookie Jackson Koivun was every bit as advertised, rolling in big putts and even club-twirling his final approach, 157 yards to 8 feet, to complete a 2-up win over Si Woo Kim, who led 2 up through 10 holes. Koivun ended the week as the only undefeated player on either side (2-0-1).
“I cannot get over what Jackson Koivun did today,” Snedeker said. “I put him in a really tough spot out there. We thought he could handle it. Sure enough, he did. He went out there and looked like the stud we know he’s going to be.”
14.5-12.5.
With Xander Schauffele dormie with Ryan Fox in the anchor match, the Internationals officially couldn’t win; they could only tie, though even that would’ve been a miracle.
Minutes later, Jacob Bridgeman, the Americans’ winless rookie, won the last with par for a 1-up victory over Min Woo Lee and the winning point.
15.5-12.5.
A 2-and-1 win by Schauffele and a tie between Russell Henley and Nick Taylor finalized the most lopsided singles session in any Cup, Presidents or Ryder.
“We’ll look back, and we’ll assess,” Ogilvy said. “I feel like we did a lot of things right. We’re getting better at this all the time. ... We’ll do it one day.”
For Snedeker, this was vindication. Not only did he go 1-2 in 2012, suffering the most decisive defeat that Sunday. But he’d faced much scrutiny the past couple days, whether it be his decision-making or his choice of words. He fumbled some of his matchups, especially in a Friday foursomes sweep by the Internationals when he opted to keep Gotterup on the bench to ride the hot-handed Thomas with Young. He also encouraged the fans on the first tee on Thursday, just a year removed from a nasty spectating display at Bethpage, to “be savages for everybody this week!”
The stress that had been building since his captaincy began reached a boiling point with Snedeker on Saturday night, and the U.S. captain opened a vein to reporters, lamenting mistakes that he made and noting that he had been “second guessing myself a lot to be in this situation.”
“I was really down last night,” Snedeker said. “I knew I was going to get killed in the media for it. I knew everybody was going to ask me a thousand questions. But to get those guys’ respect in that room, I have to be accountable.”
Schauffele noted that the players knew what the emotionally transparent Snedeker was feeling all week, and he said, “Every one of us took it personally, and we played our asses off.”
Once the American onslaught was complete, Snedeker finally got to exhale.
“I’ve been where that other team is over there,” Snedeker said. “When those pairings came out last night, it was the first time I got them right all week. Those were my mistakes; I messed up the matchups. I messed up the snake draft this week (Snedeker later explained he regretted throwing Scheffler and Burns out first each of the first two sessions), and that was the first time I got it right, and those guys were ready to walk through that door for me. I’m just so damn proud of this team.
“I’m tired of hearing how these guys aren’t close. I’m tired of hearing how we can’t play team golf. Guys just proved it right then and there.”
In Snedeker’s next interview, with PGA Tour Radio, he went a step further: “This team is going to be a problem in Ireland.”
