Team USA faced a tough Friday at Medinah as the International Team took control of the Presidents Cup. After leading 3-2 on Thursday, Brandt Snedeker’s team is now down 7-3 heading into the weekend.

As for the format on day two, it was alternate shot, widely considered the toughest format in team golf, where partners play one ball and take turns hitting every shot. Moreover, Medinah No. 3 posed another dramatic challenge. The course has hosted three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, and the 2012 Ryder Cup, and it set the stage for a rematch. Here’s how the U.S. fared against a red-hot international side in round two.

Friday Foursomes 

Match 6: Corey Conners & Nick Taylor vs. Scottie Scheffler & Sam Burns 

Fresh off their nervy 1-up win over Lee and Im yesterday, Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns opened their round against Canadian players Corey Conners and Nick Taylor. To start, Scheffler hit a safe fairway wood off the tee, while Burns’ approach ran through the green, leaving a tricky downhill putt, and both settled for par. Taylor, meanwhile, hit a tee shot to set up for a 12-footer for birdie, but it slid just past the hole. And Conners couldn’t convert the comeback either. From there, Team USA birdied the second hole to take a 1-up lead. The match was tough here as Internationals answered with a birdie on the par-five third to square the advantage right back. The lead flipped once again on the fourth hole to the USA when Sam Burns made a birdie, but Internationals leveled it again on the par-5 6th. Both sides kept trading pars and matching birdies on the brutal par-three ninth to send them to the turn with Internationals by one up in the lead.

The Americans kept the win on the 10th, but the 11th was halved. The turning point of the game was the 12th. Taylor’s tee shot was bad, but it kicked off a grandstand into a good lie, leaving just 90 yards in. Conners stuffed his shot to six feet, and Taylor drained the putt to go up. Holes 13-15 were all halved with pars. Taylor then rolled in clutch four-footers to tie 16 and 17, keeping the Internationals one up into 18. On the last hole, Taylor’s drive went right, but he stuffed a 148-yard wedge to gimme range. Sam Burns’ 18-foot birdie try didn’t come through, sealing the win for Conners and Taylor.

Match 7: Sungjae Im & Hideki Matsuyama vs Russell Henley & Jacob Bridgeman

Quiet start, loud finish to the front nine for the Internationals in match two. Henley birdied the 2nd hole to put Americans in a 1-up lead, but bogeys 4th flipped momentum straight to International hands. That’s when Sungjae Im got hot with the putter. He rolled in the second birdie of the round on the par-4 5th to push their advantage up by 2. Soon enough, his playing partner Matsuyama followed with another birdie on the par-5 sixth to take the lead by 3. For Team USA, Henley and Bridgeman settled for pars but couldn’t dent the lead the Internationals had created. Then Sungjae Im and Matsuyama cruised through 7th, 8th, and the 9th to carry a commanding three-up cushion into the back nine.

Then Americans clawed back with pars on the 10th and 11th, cutting the deficit to just one for Internationals. But Matsuyama answered with a 20-foot birdie putt on 12 to push the lead back to two up. Holes 13 to 15 were pars. Matsuyama then buried a 20-foot par save on par-3 16th. Jacob Bridgeman’s six-footer tried to extend the match, but it lipped out, giving the international closeout to 3&2.

Match 8: Ryan Fox & Min Woo Lee vs Collin Morikawa & Wyndham Clark

Match three was the tightest on the front nine on the board. Wyndham Clark kept the fight strong with a birdie on the 4th, yet the first five holes went by all square. Ryan Fox then rolled in a birdie on the par-five sixth to nose through Internationals ahead, a lead they held through the seventh. But Collin Morikawa answered immediately, making a birdie on eight to square things right back up. Both teams then birdied on the tricky par-three ninth, sending this one to a dead-level turn.

This match flipped late. Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark actually held the lead for a stretch on the back nine, but Fox got hot with his putter. He made a long birdie on 16 to put Internationals on the advantage. Morikawa forced the issue with a clutch putt on 18 that left Fox a five-footer to win, but Fox once again made it to seal the match one up.

Match 9: Adam Scott & Christiaan Bezuidenhout vs. Justin Thomas & Cam Young

Justin Thomas and Cameron Young fought the hardest through the losses. They dropped the 1st hole with a bogey, giving the lead to International, but Young made a birdie on the 2nd to tie the hole. They stayed in the fight until International birdied on the 3rd and 4th to push American down by 2. Then, on No. 5, Thomas sank a 22-foot birdie putt to snatch the lead briefly. That, however, became their last real foothold. The Internationals birdied both the par-3 seventh and par-3 ninth to stretch the cushion to a commanding three up by the turn.

For Thomas and Young, holes 10th and 11th were halved, keeping the Internationals comfortably up by three. Thomas, however, then made a harsh bogey on the 12th, pushing the rivals’ lead to four up. Thomas holed out another birdie on the 14th. But in the end, Bezuidenhout birdied on the par-3 16th to close the match 3&2.

Match 10: Tom Kim & Si Woo Kim vs. Xander Schauffele & Patrick Cantlay

Another hard face-off for the Americans. The Kims opened with a birdie on the first hole to grab an early one-up edge, but Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele forced a tie on the 2nd. Cantlay further kept the pressure with a birdie on the par-5 3rd, matching stroke for stroke by Kim to keep it level. Schauffele followed up with a birdie of his own on the 4th, but Kims answered again to hold the match at a tie. The internationals broke through the early advantage with a birdie on 5th to go one up. Keeping the head start, Cantlay birdied the par-5 6th to keep chipping away. Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim matched it and held their one-up cushion through 7 & 8. Si Woo Kim’s birdie on the par-3 9th extended the Kims’ lead to two up by the turn.

Holes 10 to 13 were all halved, and the Kims protected their two-up cushion. They then closed strong, winning both the 14th and 15th to finish the game with 4 and 3.

As the sun set on Medinah, the leaderboard read 7-3 in the Internationals’ favor, a four-point cushion matched only once before in Presidents Cup history, that is, back in 1998 at Royal Melbourne. Notably, that is also the one and only time the International Team has ever won the cup. 

The U.S. captain also tried to keep his team’s head up afterwards: “This thing is 30-40 percent over. It’s not even halftime of a football game.”

True enough, and the Americans have the horses to prove it. A jam-packed Saturday, with two more sessions, gives them an easy chance to answer back. The favorites just need to start playing like it.