Team USA walked off the 18th green at Medinah Country Club on Sunday having completed the largest final-day comeback in Presidents Cup history. Trailing 10.5-7.5 after Saturday’s play, Brandt Snedeker’s side needed a big singles session to avoid losing at home to a team that led entering the last day. They got it, and the Cup stayed home, 17-13.
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Tiger Woods, who scored 27.5 points in nine Presidents Cup appearances, second only to Phil Mickelson, posted his reaction on X that evening.
“What a comeback! Congrats to Team USA on an incredible Presidents Cup victory. They needed all the matchups to go their way today and they got it done. Great team win,” Woods wrote.
The number that mattered going into Sunday was that three-point deficit. No International team had ever carried a lead into the final day of a Presidents Cup played in the United States, and Geoff Ogilvy’s side had done exactly that.
The Americans responded by taking 9.5 points from a possible 12, turning the gap into a win. It was the 11th consecutive US victory in the event and the 14th overall since 1994. The scoreline settled the outcome, but the manner of the reversal is what will be remembered from Medinah.
Cameron Young got the first point on the board, beating Ryo Hisatsune 3 and 2 after trailing by two early and finishing him off with a 31-foot birdie on the 16th. Sungjae Im’s 3-and-1 win over Sam Burns kept the Internationals two points ahead, but four straight American wins followed.
Scottie Scheffler supplied one of the day’s most talked-about moments, and not only with his golf. In his match against Nico Echavarria, a fan shouted “Go Scottie!” during Echavarria’s backswing on the par-4 14th, and his tee shot went right. Scheffler told the crowd there was no place for that, then conceded Echavarria a 32-foot par putt, halving a hole he had no obligation to give away. Echavarria chipped in from 64 feet for birdie on the 16th and shushed the crowd, but Scheffler closed out the match 2 and 1 on the 17th and finished the week 3-1.
The clinching point belonged to a rookie. Jacob Bridgeman beat Min Woo Lee 1-up in a match that came down to the 18th hole, pushing the Americans to the 15.5 points required to win the Cup.
Snedeker singled him out afterward: “I’m also so damn proud of Jacob Bridgeman, getting his first point as a Presidents Cup rookie.”
Another rookie made a big contribution earlier. Jackson Koivun, 21 and only a few months into his pro career after starring at Auburn, was two holes down to Si Woo Kim before winning four of the next five holes. He closed out a 2-up win with a birdie on the 18th and finished his debut unbeaten.
The turn came in the closing stretch. Patrick Cantlay holed a 57-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th to go 2 up on Adam Scott, and the crowd broke into a chant of “USA! USA! USA!” Cantlay went on to close out Scott 2 and 1, which leveled the overall score at 12.5-12.5.
Chris Gotterup had earlier edged Christiaan Bezuidenhout by a single hole. Within moments of Cantlay’s win, Collin Morikawa beat Hideki Matsuyama on the 18th to give the Americans their first lead in two days, and Koivun’s win made it 14.5-12.5. Xander Schauffele’s 2-and-1 win over Ryan Fox came after the Cup was already secured.
Jim Furyk will captain the Americans at next year’s Ryder Cup at Adare Manor. The three-point rally also topped the two-point comeback the US pulled off in 2019. The Internationals go home with nothing again, still looking for a second win after their only victory in 1998. Ogilvy said the day drifted the wrong way for his team and then the crowd got involved, and the next Presidents Cup is at Kingston Heath in Australia in 2028. Woods summed it up about as well as anyone could: a great team win, decided by matches that finally started going USA’s way.