CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Xander Schauffele had some choice words for how he was feeling Saturday evening after falling in his afternoon four-ball match. Suffice it to say, he was upset.
“Wasn’t very pleased with myself personally,” he said “I can probably speak for my partner (Patrick Cantlay) as well, who is absent currently. Yeah, we didn’t get a point, and that one hurt us.”
How does Schauffele play when he’s upset?
“I don’t play very well,” he said. “I play like a toddler … So I play my best when I’m focused and, you know, very present.”
Sunday, Schauffele was present and accounted for. In a Presidents Cup singles session rife with seeing and sawing, Schauffele proved to be the fulcrum, battling through momentum swings on both nines to earn the deciding point as the United States survived a comeback bid from the International team to retain the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow by a score of 17½-12½.
Heavy at the top
Jordan Spieth knew U.S. Captain Davis Love III placed him and Justin Thomas at the top of the singles lineup Sunday because Love wanted to establish a measure of momentum for the Americans as they looked to close out the event with a win.
Spieth promptly lost his first two holes to Australian Cam Davis – not the start anyone on the U.S. side was envisioning.
But the other reason Love had Spieth and Thomas at the top is the pair’s resolve.
Spieth gathered himself with a par for tie at the third hole, won the next two with birdies and then rattled off five wins in six holes from the ninth to the 14th to take control of his match.
“I had a great back nine,” Spieth said. “I hit a really good shot into 11 driving the hole. Hit it in the middle of the green there after winning the 9th and having a nice tie on the 10th. That’s where the game shifted was birdieing there. I rallied off three straight birdies on this nine and kept trying to hit greens.”
His win – 4-and-3 over Davis – was the first of the day for the U.S. team as it retained the Presidents Cup against a scrappy International squad.
The final score was far closer than anyone envisioned as recently as Friday afternoon. After four-ball play in Session 2, the Americans held an 8-2 advantage, more than halfway to the total needed to win the Cup.
“The score means we’ve got to get better, and we will, plain and simple,” International Captain Trevor Immelman said Friday evening.
Immelman proved to be as prescient as he was charismatic this week. The International side earned a split with the Americans in Saturday morning foursomes, and then clawed back with a 3-1 win in the Saturday afternoon four-ball play to pull within four points with 12 singles matches to play Sunday.
“The vibe is – the vibe is hopeful,” Immelman said Saturday. “The vibe is hopeful. (Saturday) was a big step for a very young and inexperienced team.”
With Sunday’s result, the International team took another big step forward.
Nerves tested
Two hours into Sunday’s singles matches, Immelman was zipping around the grounds in his souped-up golf cart, trying desperately to keep track of the 12 pairings scattered across 10 different holes. His smile was as wide as it had been all week.
Immelman has purveyed hope at this year’s Presidents Cup, an event in which his International team was a massive underdog.
“I think it’s quite clear that we’re the underdogs,” Immelman said matter-of-factly during the opening news conference. “We generally have been in this competition over the years, so it’s a tag that we’re used to.
Added Immelman: “But the exciting part for us really is I do think that it frees us up … because we have nothing to lose. If you look at our record in this tournament and you look at our World Rankings versus their World Rankings, we have absolutely nothing to lose.”
Love cruised around in his own red, white and blue cart Sunday, his face bearing an expression more of concern than jubilation.
On the 12-match scoreboard, black and gold occupied more space than red and white, signaling that, for a second consecutive session, the International side was rallying, threatening what had been an American stranglehold.
Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa made things a little easier to handle for the American side for a while, each taking 3-up leads into the back nine. But even those weren’t airtight advantages.
Case in point: Schauffele lost three consecutive holes from 12-14 to fall into a tie with Corey Conners before righting the ship with a win at 15 to go 1-up, his eventual margin of victory.
Closing it out
An unexpected result from Si Woo Kim – a birdie to win 1-up on 18 over Justin Thomas – raised eyebrows around the course. Cantlay calmed some American nerves moments later, though, with a 3-and-2 win over Adam Scott.
“I knew it was an important match,” Cantlay said. “They definitely front-loaded, and I knew it was really important for me to get my point today.”
Sam Burns eked out a half point with a tie against Hideki Matsuyama – a match Matsuyama nearly stole when he rattled the flagstick with a chip on the 18th. That pushed the U.S. total to 13½.
Sebastian Munoz upset world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, 2-and-1 to add another point to the International total. Through four matches the teams had evenly split points at 2½ each.
Tony Finau emphatically set the stage for Schauffele, draining a lengthy putt on 17 to close out Taylor Pendrith 3-and-1 to push the U.S. point total to 14½.
“We all know what’s on the line here this week,” Finau said. “It adds to the extra intensity, I think. I needed every bit of it. I played really nicely.”
Moments after Schauffele closed out the team victory, Sungjae Im started a parade of points for the International squad, closing out Cameron Young, 1-up. K.H. Lee also earned a win, closing out Billy Horschel, 3-and-1.
Max Homa and Collin Morikawa finished with wins also for the U.S., and in the final match of the weekend, Christiaan Bezuidehout took down Kevin Kisner in a final victory for the Internationals.
