It’s probably not the start that international team captain Mike Weir was hoping for. The Canadiens will have to wait until at least Friday before seeing his men score their first point at the Presidents Cup.
The U.S. team swept the four-ball session to take a 5-0 lead after the first day of competition on Thursday.
It was the first time a sweep had been achieved as the opening act of the competition, and it was also the fifth time overall in the history of the prestigious team competition — and the fourth for the U.S. team.
The last sweep was achieved by the Americans on the third day of the 2007 Presidents Cup… at the Royal Montreal Golf Club.
“It wasn’t a great day,” Weir said. “It’s kind of like when you’re down after the first period of a hockey game. You’re down, but there’s still a lot of time left. That’s how we’re approaching it.”
The American duos of Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele (plus-1), Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala (plus-1), Russell Henley and Scottie Scheffler (three and two), Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark (plus-1), as well as Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay (two and one) all won their matches played in a four-ball format on the fairways of the Blue Course at the Royal Montreal Golf Club.
Worse still, the duo of Canadian Taylor Pendrith and South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout, as well as that of South Koreans Sungjae Im and Tom Kim, were never able to take the lead in their match against the Americans.
As for the Canadian Corey Conners and the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama, he briefly took the lead by one point on the first nine, before admitting defeat by Burns and Cantlay.
“Yeah, I’m obviously disappointed that I didn’t get the point for the international team. I played well, maybe I wanted to rework a few shots, but we fought,” said Conners, who is still looking for his first point in two Presidents Cup appearances.
“We can obviously take some positives from today and we’ll have to roll up our sleeves for the weekend,” he added.
A message Weir repeated to his charges after the session. Earlier this week, the 2003 Masters champion said he hoped his men would have a good first day to set the tone and get the crowd excited for the showdown. In vain.
And despite all the good will, Weir is not out of the woods yet, as the comeback promises to be tough. The American team has never lost in this competition after finishing the first day with the lead. The United States has a 10-0 record in these circumstances.
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