CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA | Another American Presidents Cup victory had been secured a few minutes earlier by Xander Schauffele’s brilliant up-and-down par save on the 18th hole at Quail Hollow Club, but Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas were still running the show.
They were in a four-seat golf cart, celebratory beverages close by while Schauffele leaned on the front of the cart, all smiles talking about how the clinching point had played out.
There were still teammates on the course – specifically Max Homa and Kevin Kisner in tight matches – and Spieth and Thomas wanted to be with them.
“Xander, get in the cart,” Spieth said smiling, pointing to a seat in the back where Schauffele’s wife, Patrick Cantlay and his fiancée had already squeezed in.
A moment later, off they rolled – four players and four spouses in seating for four – to finish what they started long ago, a 17½-12½ United States victory.
Thomas was in the driver’s seat with Spieth riding shotgun.
The American Presidents Cup team may have been captained by Davis Love III, but it was driven by Spieth and Thomas, whose competitiveness and camaraderie are woven together like strands of shared DNA.
A generation ago, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson dominated team rooms but from different corners. Spieth and Thomas are a generational pair, buddies trying to beat each other since they were in elementary school and brothers in seemingly every sense but bloodline.
They are so close that a teammate joked earlier in the week that he was surprised they weren’t holding hands walking down the fairway.
Together, Spieth and Thomas were nearly flawless at Quail Hollow. They became the third pair in Presidents Cup history to win the four team matches they played, joining Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in 2009 and Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace in 2015.
Spieth even won his singles match, beating Cam Davis, 4 and 3, ending a personal 0-6-1 dark space in team play. He can hold that over his buddy, who has not won a singles match in three tries after losing to Si Woo Kim, 1-up, and preventing them from becoming the first duo to go 5-0 in a Presidents Cup.
Not quite perfect, but close enough.
“I'm really excited about the week that was this week,” Spieth said. “I thought that I played some of my best golf of the year this week, which was really cool to do it with and for … as a team with these guys. Me and Justin had just an unbelievable time in the team setting, and I was glad to finally get in the winner's circle in a singles match for my first time ever.”
Spieth’s self-congratulation on his singles victory drew a round of applause from his teammates.
It’s no secret the Presidents Cup has been beyond lopsided through the years, with the Internationals having won just once in 14 tries. There were concerns that the outcome of this event might be determined by sundown Saturday.
Instead, the International team pushed the issue, keyed by a dramatic Saturday afternoon performance that brought an added level of seriousness to Sunday’s 12 singles matches.
That’s why Love sent Thomas out first and Spieth immediately behind him. The captain went with his best, who along with unbeaten Max Homa, drove a victory that was more challenging the last two days than it appeared to be the first two days.
“I think that the biggest challenge for us this week was staying within ourselves and not letting the outside noise get to us."
Jordan SpIEth
In his singles match against Si Woo Kim, Thomas was irritated early when his opponent did not concede a short putt.
“It's one of those things, I think when you're in the moment, when you're on the other side of it, it's something that gets you motivated, gets you pumped up a little bit,” Thomas said.
“I mean, he hit the shots and made the putts better than I did the last three holes or, really, the last (few) holes when he needed to. So I can say whatever I want about it, but he beat me. So he has the upper hand on me.
“But we won the cup, so that's all that matters.”
There are many questions facing Zach Johnson, a vice captain at Quail Hollow who will lead the U.S. team next year when it tries to win the Ryder Cup on foreign soil for the first time in three decades.
One question Johnson won’t have to ask is what to do with Spieth and Thomas.
As for what Johnson can do – and he will have no shortage of advice to go with his own notes – Spieth likes the blueprint Love laid out, building off what Steve Stricker did in winning the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits.
“I think that the biggest challenge for us this week was staying within ourselves and not letting the outside noise get to us. We saw notes of that that Captain Love put up all over the place, that we were supposed to win and we're favorites and all that,” Spieth said.
“What was so cool, which has been very consistent in the previous few cups that I've been involved in, which is, everyone's really, really good at what they do. Stay to your routine, do what you normally do to prepare for the biggest tournaments, and they did that. Nobody took anything lightly. They went through their same routine that I've seen guys go through for the final round of the Masters when they're in the final group.
“To do that for your team and country was super cool to watch.”
Ron Green Jr.