Patrick Cantlay handed the Internationals a stunning defeat in the Presidents Cup on Saturday.
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MONTREAL – Drinks are flowing in the Presidents Cup team rooms, but our writers — James Colgan, Dylan Dethier and Nick Piastowski — stuck around to share the best, worst, wildest and silliest from an exciting week at the Presidents Cup.
Dylan Dethier, senior writer (@dylan_dethier): Hello, James. Hello Nick. I saw the rest of our staff MVP already addressedso let’s take a slightly different angle: If you were giving grades, which player gets the highest and lowest grades?
James Colgan, News & Features Editor (@jamescolgan26): Dylan, Nick – hi! Big marks to you both this week, and to the Kim Brothers (Tom and Si Woo) who delivered some of the most entertaining match golf I think I’ve ever seen. I’ll give them an A-minus for the week because they lost the Cup but saved it too. What about the lowest scorers? Let’s just say that Brian Harman will likely go to bed tonight very thankful for a USA win, because his winless performance (which featured a one-week SG: Total of -8.54, the worst in the field) it was something to forget. I think that equates to a D-plus.
Nick Piastowski, Senior Editor (@nickpia): Right off the bat I’ll say that you guys, along with GOLF videographer Emma Devine, were the real MVPs. You also can’t argue with the Kims, and Tom has certainly become the face of the event. But my “A” goes to Friday’s effort by Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im. A day after the internationals were crushed, they came out and KO’d American stars Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schaffele 7 and 6 and delivered a ton. Lowest grade? Here’s a second vote for Harman. And one for Mike Weir. He gassed up his team on Saturday afternoon.
Dethier: I feel like I have to deduct points from both of you for failing to mention anyone on the team that just threw away a dominating win. I’ll call out the dominant duo of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, who each went 4-1-0. They put the Cup effectively out of reach when they returned their foursome on Saturday night, and they slammed the door with early wins on Sunday afternoon: Schauffele won six holes on the back nine against Jason Day while Cantlay won three of four his last holes for him. close Taylor Pendrith. The hitting numbers aren’t even with these two: They were the best players in Montreal this week. A and A! And while it gives me no pleasure to give this, I will give a low grade to Sungjae Im, the only player to miss four games this week. There were a lot of guys who played worse golf, but this team needs me to be a difference maker; he wasn’t. That’s a D for our son.
A second guess, then: What was the biggest mistake, either in tactics or execution, that you saw this week?
Colgan: The easy answer here is what Mike Weir, the International Captain, did when he chose to play the same eight golfers for all 36 holes on Saturday. His team completely ran out of gas, and then looked lethargic for most of Sunday’s singles matches. It was a huge tactical risk and it largely backfired. It may have cost the tournament INTs as well.
Piastowski: This is getting a little out, but the rough here was mostly short, making more birdies, giving an advantage to the USA, who, in my opinion, were the more talented group on paper.
Dethier: As our own Sean Zak says, these team events may be the Olympics of Hindsight – but Weir’s strategy on Saturday really backfired. Team INT rode their horses to the ground. It was a bold call and it didn’t work. The eight guys who played those last three sessions went 2-6 on Saturday and 2-5-1 on Sunday. Not good enough.
However, it is easy to simplify these matches into a binary win-loss perspective. Name someone whose record doesn’t tell the full story of their week.
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James Colgan
Colgan: Max Homa! On paper he was 1-2-0, but he was one of the best players on both sides, according to hitters. Also Sungjae Im, whom Hideki Matsuyama praised for his passage in the alternate doubles match on Saturday afternoon, but finished 1-4-0.
Piastowski: Mack Hughes. He will never forget this week. Career highlight. He even emphasized this in his press conference.
Dethier: I’ll give you Sam Burns. He was the only player in the field to not lose a match, going 3-0-1, but in golf’s most important statistical category — strokes gained — he’s dead last so far, losing 5.99 strokes in field. This is wild! Of course, winning the categories won by strokes is not the point of the week; victory is, and he did it better than anyone. But it wasn’t always pretty.
So let’s give people an inside look. What do you have to see locally that people wouldn’t have seen watching it on TV?
Colgan: How torn the things really took sometimes on Saturday and Sunday. it’s in fashion to dismiss this event for failing to bring serious competition, and WL’s record would certainly show that to be true, but for a few real moments there on Saturday and Sunday things hung in the balance.
Piastowski: Royal Montreal, while not an architectural gem, was top-rated, easy to get around, had dashes everywhere and made for a good match game. Also, most of the trees here are marked, showing what they are. I learned a lot with this.
Dethier: That’s good, Nick. Sounds like an educational week for you. I’m not sure how clear this was on the air, but I thought it was fun: There was real drama about who would secure the real winning point. He met Patrick Cantlay, who was on the verge of securing his match on No. 17, or Keegan Bradley, who was trying to get up and down for the win on 16. The greens are close together, separated by only from a pond, so everyone around them waited to see who would make their first shot. But then something funny happened: Bradley placed first, by three or four feet, and lost. That meant Cantlay’s point, which he secured a few minutes later, took Team USA to 14.5. Bradley suffered a little more stress when he missed No. 17 but eventually secured victory on No. 18 – a fitting end to the week for next year’s Ryder Cup captain.
Colgan: Oh, something else I saw that most people didn’t know was Fluff Cowan, the legendary caddy and old friend of Jim Furyk. Fluff was in Montreal just four weeks removed from a hip replacement as the ceremonial charioteer, and he seemed genuinely excited to be around the boys.
Long live Fluff.
Dethier: In six months, what will you remember from this Presidents Cup?
Colgan: I will remember Si Woo Kim’s night-night celebration as I stand on the 16th hole on Saturday until I leave the golf industry or leave this earth … whichever comes first. It was the kind of moment that only team golf events give us – and it made me completely rethink my perception of him as a player and competitor in a matter of weeks. Go Si Woo. That moment shocked. Although he lost two holes later. Or maybe BECAUSE he did.
Piastowski: That the U.S. should bottle up whatever hell they found on Saturday, after they ran into a body on Friday, and take it six months from now – to Bethpage Black.
Dethier: I’ll remember the joy on the field of Friday’s 5-0 sweep, which felt like it saved the whole week. This was wonderful. I’ll remember Patrick Cantlay’s Saturday shot in the dark – yes, another one. And I will remember the easy camaraderie of the American team as they circled the last game of the day. The tension of the event was long gone, but there was something special about the moment Max Homa holed a six-footer on the 17th green to close out Mackenzie Hughes. Some of the best players in the world surrounded him, beer already in hand, finishing a season together that they had only started. Good times.
