Mike Weir’s curious decision to play the same set for all 36 holes on Saturday drew outrage from golf fans.
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MONTREAL – It was quiet for a moment on the 16th green at Royal Montreal early Saturday afternoon.
Minutes earlier, Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau had sent the internationals into a four-ball game 10 meters down the right on the 16th. later, Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns would close out the internationals 15 yards down the left on the 17th. But at this point, the only conversation that filled the 16th bleachers surrounded the completely unathletic goings-on a few football fields away, where captains Jim Furyk and Mike Weir picked this Presidents Cup. the last four pairs of alternate shots.
One by one, the pair went through the afternoon’s matches, which were quickly posted on the video boards inside the tournament gates. But as soon as the news began to circulate, an uneasy calm fell over the crowd.
“Wait,” one fan asked. “Is that right?”
Indeed, it was right – and it was the strategic decision of the tournament.
The Americans had bowled one of their four fastballs in their alternate bowling pairings, dropping Tony Finau, Wyndham Clark and Keegan Bradley for Brian Harman, Max Homa and Russell Henley. But the internationals had thrown … a repetition?
Weir had chosen exactly the same pairs for the afternoon alternate shot as he did for the morning four ball. As in the morning, Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im, Taylor Pendrith and Adam Scott, Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes, and Tom and Si Woo Kim would be responsible for bringing home the glory for the internationals in the afternoon.
For the first time in Presidents Cup history, a captain had chosen to play exactly the same pairings twice on the same day.
At first, the strategy had some merit. For one thing, the Internationals were riding a wave of alternate hitting momentum from their five-nil win the day before. And no one could blame Weir, the captain of a Presidents’ International Cup side with just one win in 30 years, for living and dying with his best players.
But there were also some obvious caveats: namely, that the pairing choices left the internationals extremely prone to fatigue. It was a long day for internationals BEFORE they reached the first tee for Saturday afternoon’s alternate shot, thanks to a pre-4am wake-up call and a 90-minute fog delay. Most of the international team then came out and played poorly in a start-and-stop opening session. Only the so-called “Kim brothers” – Tom and Si Woo (no relation) – won in the early session and their general penchant for high-octane celebrations appeared to leave both prone to a late-in-a-day fade 36 holes. .
It was a risk. A big one. Maybe even a Presidents Cup decision.
IT WAS QUIET FOR A MOMENT ON THE 18TH GREEN SATURDAY NIGHT.
But only for a moment.
Patrick Cantlay had just sent a 15-footer cutting through the night sky and straight into the center of the cupa devastating birdie on the final hole that forced a Si Woo Kim to make from almost the same distance only to halve the match.
The international crowd, which had spent most of the last few hours hurling insults at Cantlay, suddenly fell silent. Cantlay’s subsequent scream burst through the air like a thunderclap.
A minute later, Kim missed his birdie attempt, ending the match with a stroke. A morning that had been filled with such promise for the internationals now bled into a heart-wrenching early evening. The internationals trailed by four points, the same deficit a more inexperienced side faced on the road two years ago.
The international momentum of the early afternoon – leading three of the four games, a draw in the other – had faded in particularly shocking fashion. Three of the four afternoon matches needed 18 holes to decide the winner and all but one of them featured a late charge by the Americans to steal a full point. On a day that began in darkness, Weir’s worst 36-hole strategy fears had come to life in the last whispers of sunlight.
“No, there’s nothing wrong with Jason (Day),” Weir said when asked about the decision to sit international stalwart Jason Day for the day. “We went 5-0 yesterday and had a lot of momentum.”
Weir said the decision was strategic, choosing not to elaborate on specifics other than “trying to get our best guys out there” and that the team knew “pretty early” what the lineup would look like.
“We talked it over, and that was it,” he said. “We had a plan. We had a plan for a few other things as well. That’s why we meet and go through these things. But nothing about health to put any of the other guys out.”
Ultimately, we’ll never know if any of the other four members of the international team – Day, Min Woo Lee, Christian Bezuidenhout and Ben An – would have turned the tide on Saturday afternoon. in WILLStill, I know the overriding feeling that came from both sides of a marathon Saturday at the Presidents Cup: exhaustion.
“I’m pretty tired, yeah,” volunteered Pendrith, the first of the day’s finishers.
“I’m very tired now, but I’m not going to lie, I’m very motivated to go out tomorrow,” he said Tom Kimfirecracker, who later admitted his game let him down a bit on Saturday.
“I’m 54, I just went 36, I’m tired,” American captain Jim Furyk said with a smile.
“To Jim’s point,” even Weir agreed. “Yeah, I’m tired.”
There will not be much rest for the weary. The last session of the Presidents Cup – 12 singles matches – starts in just a few hours. That could be good news for the Internationals, who wake up Sunday in an 11-7 hole after losing 3-1 in both sessions Saturday.
“They’ll be ready,” Weir said. “Our guys aren’t confused this time, they’re ready.”
In other words, Weir has a new strategy to overcome a brutal Presidents Cup on Saturday.
Wash and rinse.
Just don’t repeat it.
