After being thoroughly beaten on Friday, Team USA entered Day 3 hoping for a turnaround. However, the Americans faced adversity right from the opening match. Veteran-rookie duo Justin Thomas and Jackson Koivun took on Sungjae Im and Min Woo Lee, but despite their best efforts, they could only salvage half a point. Disappointed, Thomas took responsibility.
“I’m gutted. I just feel like I let him down today,” the two-time major winner said about playing with Koivun. “I’m bummed, and I told him that I’m sorry, not only for him, [but for] the team. I feel like, if I play and do some things I should have, we would have had a point there. But yeah, it’s nice, I guess, the last two things could have gone the opposite way.
“But I’ve really enjoyed battling with Jackson. He’s going to be playing in these things for a long time. I’d definitely take him as a partner anytime you can get him.”
Thomas was referring to his difficult situation on the first hole of his four-ball match. The 33-year-old’s opening drive went left, barely staying in bounds as it came to rest in the rough near a fence. Given the awkward lie, Thomas switched his grip and attempted to play the shot left-handed but failed, with the ball traveling only a few feet.
This forced him to take a third shot to get back into play. However, 21-year-old rookie Koivun quickly came to the rescue with a birdie to seize an early 1-up lead. The pair built a 2-up advantage and held it through 14 holes, only to stumble on the par-3 16th and fall back to all-square. Thomas then saved par on the 18th to secure a half-point in the hard-fought tie.
What’s even more impressive is that Koivun had just turned pro in June and even secured his first PGA Tour victory, which led to his selection to the Presidents Cup via captain’s pick.
“It was so much fun out there,” Koivun said about the match. “Really happy with the way I performed on the front nine, and obviously coming down the back nine finishing stretch was a little disappointing to hand away two holes, but at the end of the day, we got this afternoon to look forward to.”
Elsewhere, Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim managed to secure a point for the International team by beating Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark 2&1. However, Day 3 wasn’t entirely disappointing for the American side. Nick Taylor and Corey Conners fell to Chris Gotterup and Cameron Young 2&1.
In the final group, best friends Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns defeated Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune to close out Saturday morning’s fourball session. The result offered Team USA a decent response after the International team’s clean sweep earlier in the day, cutting the deficit from 7-3 to 8.5-5.5.
However, the comeback is still far from what the Americans managed in 2024. That year, Team USA produced a remarkable turnaround after the International side stunned them with a historic 5-0 sweep in Friday’s foursomes, erasing the Americans’ 5-0 lead and leveling the overall score at 5-5.
The U.S. responded emphatically on Saturday, winning both the morning four-ball and afternoon foursomes sessions by identical 3-1 margins to take an 11-7 lead into Sunday’s singles. That strong rebound set the stage for a dominant final day, with the Americans eventually securing an 18.5-11.5 victory.
This year, however, Saturday afternoon’s foursomes session is still to come. With Team USA already trailing by three points and having surrendered 1.5 points in the morning session, the Americans cannot replicate the exact sequence of their 2024 comeback as they head into Saturday afternoon’s foursomes.