So much for changing the Presidents Cup narrative.
So much for this being the year when the Internationals, lifted on the figurative shoulders of a hopeful Canadian crowd, found a different ending to a story that plays over and over like a song caught on repeat.
So much for something more than the same old same old.
This Presidents Cup ended the way all of them seem to: with the Americans backslapping one another and Xander Schauffele lighting up another victory cigar the size of a tree trunk while questions about the long-term viability of this Ryder Cup wannabe will no doubt gather momentum after an 18½-11½ victory by the red, white and blue.
The Presidents Cup tries hard to be everything the PGA Tour wants it to be, but it is diluted by something that should be celebrated: the Americans’ overwhelming dominance in the event.
If you’re keeping score at home, the Americans are now 13-1-1 in this event while the International team, which felt strongly this was going to its year at Royal Montreal Golf Club, is tiptoeing into 2024 Chicago White Sox territory.
It’s simple, really.
The Americans are just better.
That’s not exactly revelatory. It has almost always been the story in the Presidents Cup. The Americans win by being both top-heavy and having the most depth. In football parlance, they can beat you running, and they can beat you through the air. Pick your poison.
In the last 46 sessions played in the Presidents Cup, the Americans have led after 41 sessions, according to golf numbers whiz Justin Ray.
This year hinted at being different. Playing in the Montreal suburbs, the Internationals had the supposed home-course advantage, if there is such a thing for a team with players from five countries and four continents.
The Canadian effect – captain Mike Weir and players Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith are Canadian born, and the crowd was largely local – was considered the elusive X factor for the International team.
“We talked about being a dog all week, being the tougher team. I just feel like those back-nine holes, if you looked at how many holes won and lost, I’ve got to feel like we kind of owned the back nine this week, and that was the difference.”
Jim Furyk
Those things were nice and added a layer of texture to the proceedings, as did Tom Kim’s emotion and Sungjae Im’s team-room dances, but they didn’t make a difference in the result. Would having LIV golfers Joaquín Niemann and Cam Smith have made a difference? It doesn’t matter because they are not eligible.
This Presidents Cup flickered with possibility Friday evening after Weir’s team swept the second session, erasing the first-day sweep by the Americans, teasing everyone with the idea that it was game on.
It was, until Saturday, when the Americans spent sunup until sundown squeezing the hope out of the Internationals. Patrick Cantlay supplied the emotional dagger in the Saturday gloaming, draining a birdie putt that gave the Americans a four-point lead that somehow felt bigger.
In the Sunday singles, the Americans never let the Internationals create enough tension for it to matter. When Schauffele went out and thumped Jason Day, 4 and 3, in the opener, the tone was set. The rest of the afternoon was a sun-splashed formality.
“We talked about being a dog all week, being the tougher team. I just feel like those back-nine holes, if you looked at how many holes won and lost, I’ve got to feel like we kind of owned the back nine this week, and that was the difference,” U.S. captain Jim Furyk said.
That it fell to Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley to secure the clinching point was a sweet touch given his disappointment at being left off the American team in Rome last fall and what’s ahead of him in the coming year.
A decade ago, Bradley lost the decisive point in a Ryder Cup loss. This time, he got to feel the joy.
“I really thought these days were over. I really did. Even playing my best, I didn’t know if I was going to ever be on one of these teams. So, to come here and do this is a highlight of my life,” said Bradley, who beat Si Woo Kim, 1-up, in singles.
In case you’re thinking that shows golf’s soft side, maybe it does, but what does it say that Adam Scott hasn’t won a Presidents Cup in 11 tries?
When Furyk captained the losing U.S. team in the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris, he had to live with the inevitable second-guessing that comes with every such defeat. The fact that one of the American players, Patrick Reed, was among the most outspoken critics, didn’t help.
Now, it’s Weir who will spend his coming days wondering what he might have done differently. By Saturday evening, he was already being criticized for playing the same eight players in both sessions on the third day, creating a fatigue factor that worked against his best players.
“Of course I’m going to be thinking about things I would have done differently,” Weir said late Sunday afternoon as the final matches concluded.
The Americans can enjoy this one until the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black next fall comes into sharper focus, which won’t be long.
As for the International team, having a shield and team colors and an organic camaraderie have made a difference, but they are not enough to overcome the Americans’ built-in talent advantage. Three of the top four players in the world rankings anchored Furyk’s team, and they played with the freedom that has marked U.S. teams in this event.
It’s not the Presidents Cup that needs to change.
It’s the outcome that needs to change to capture more imaginations.
The Americans keep raising the bar in this event. It’s up to the International team to find a way to clear that bar.
They have another two years to figure it out.
E-MAIL RON
Top: Scottie Scheffler (left), Max Homa and Brian Harman celebrate after winning the Presidents Cup.
Vaughn Ridley, Getty Images