Internationals finish strong to lead Presidents Cup. Now they have to find a way to close it out

MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) — The International team showed it knows how to finish matches. It rallied from deficits in every match, morning and afternoon, on Saturday at Medinah to build a three-point lead going into the final day at the Presidents Cup.

Now the question is whether they can finish off the Americans for the first time in 28 years.

“They showed a lot of passion and fight today,” International captain Geoff Ogilvy said.

The Americans narrowly won the fourballs session in the morning to trim the deficit to three points. The afternoon foursomes was a push. The result was a 10 1/2-7 1/2 advantage for the Internationals, only the fourth time since the Presidents Cup began in 1994 that they have led going into Sunday.

Now comes the hard part. Singles traditionally are an American strength in these team competitions. They have a 97 1/2-82 1/2 advantage dating to 1994.

U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker stacked the front of his lineup to try to get momentum. Cameron Young is leading off against International rookie Ryo Hisatsune, followed by U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark against Tom Kim, Justin Thomas against Corey Conners and Scottie Scheffler against Nico Echavarria, who has not hit a meaningful shot since Thursday.

“We kind of dug ourself a hole here,” Snedeker said. “We’re going to need a special day tomorrow, and the only way to do that is to get the crowd going, get these guys making some putts, and get these people behind them.”

Scheffler, who teamed with Sam Burns to deliver a rare American rally in the morning, spent the afternoon watching. Snedeker benched the world’s No. 1 player, his first time not playing all five matches since 2023.

“As I said at the beginning of the week, Scottie Scheffler is not going to go out there and win us 15 points, so we’ve got to go out there as a team and do this together,” Snedeker said. “I challenged the guys this afternoon to go out there and be that team that we need them to be.”

And that’s what he got — at least for a while.

The Americans twice filled the leaderboard with their red numbers, leading by at least 2 up in every foursomes match in the afternoon. They won two of them. Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman were 3 up through 10 holes when Nick Taylor and Corey Conners rallied to beat them for the final point on a long, loud day at Medinah.

“We had to sort of weather the storm early in both sessions, and it was amazing for the boys to get us out of the day relatively unscathed,” Ogilvy said.

Min Woo Lee was part of both comebacks. He teamed with Sungjae Im in fourballs, going from 2 down against Thomas and Jackson Koivun to earn a halve in the morning. Lee and Ryan Fox overcame an early deficit to blow past Burns and Clark in afternoon foursomes.

The final stroke of a long, loud day at Medinah was Conners holing a 6-foot par putt on the 18th green with both teams gathered around.

“Both sessions having all red on the board, down in every match, and to come back and get 1 1/2 points out of this morning we felt like was a little victory,” Ogilvy said. “The U.S. team played so well all day. They played some really high-level foursomes especially this afternoon. For the boys to somehow come back and pinch two points out of that and split the session was amazing.”

The lead was the largest for the Internationals since 2003 in South Africa, the Presidents Cup that ended in a tie. They last led at Royal Melbourne in 2019 until the Americans rallied behind Tiger Woods, the playing captain that year.

The Americans found their spark from Cameron Young and Chris Gotterup — Young from New York, Gotterup from New Jersey — who were unstoppable. They won the first four holes in fourballs against Conners and Taylor in a 2-and-1 victory, and they were 5 up through seven holes in blowing out Im and Adam Scott, 6 and 4, the shortest match of the week.

Clark got the noise he wanted from Chicago fans, and Snedeker was on the seventh green raising his arms for even louder cheers when the Americans holed putts — and the Internationals missed.

Lee made his Presidents Cup debut at Royal Montreal in 2024 and was asked how this experience was different.

“I guess the crowd is different, not getting cheers for holing putts. It’s a bit different than any tournament, really,” Lee said. “We just had to be there for each other. I think that was a big part.”

The crowd was so boisterous that a volunteer had to retrieve one fan's dentures that had come out of his mouth from the upper deck of a hospitality tent on the 10th hole.

The Internationals have been at their best closing out matches. Now they have to find a way to close out a Presidents Cup the Americans have won the last 10 times.

“The goal at the start of the week is to be leading going into singles. That’s sort of what the first four days are all about,” Ogilvy said. “There’s still 12 points on the board, though, so we’ve seen in these team events all sorts of different things can happen.

“We’ve got to put our heads down and play for a big opportunity tomorrow.”