The final tally from the 2026 Presidents Cup read 17-13 in favor of the Americans, and while the U.S. team was able to avoid embarrassment against an inferior International side, you are lying to yourself if you came away from those four days of golf at Medinah feeling optimistic or overly impressed about United States team golf.
The Americans were thoroughly outplayed and outclassed for three consecutive days by the International side, but when Sunday singles rolled around, and it was 12 vs. 12, mano-a-mano, the U.S. was able to do something the International team could not: rely on depth. The average World Ranking for the U.S. team was 15.1 while the International’s average was 50.1, and that differential showed when it mattered most.
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The Internationals gave away the Presidents Cup. Period.
The Internationals carried a full three-point advantage into Sunday’s session, needing just five of a possible 12 points to secure their second Presidents Cup victory ever, but ultimately earned only 2.5 points on the final day. If you turn it around, the Internationals lost 9.5 points of an available 12, which is tough to comprehend.
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And yes, even with the Americans having the deeper stable of players and having the advantage of playing on home soil, it’s perfectly okay to say that the International side choked away the event.
Ryo Hisatsune was 1-up thru five holes over Cameron Young before losing 3&2. Hideki Matsuyama was 1-up on Collin Morikawa with just four holes to play and couldn’t even salvage a half point. Si Woo Kim and Jackson Koivun were all square standing on the 13th tee, and the American rookie who hasn’t even been a professional golfer for 90 days at this point went on to earn a 2-up victory. Min Woo Lee was 1-up on Jacob Bridgeman thru 15 holes, blinked, and the American was standing over the Cup-clinching putt on the 18th to win the match 1-up.
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Golf is a fickle game, and while the putters collectively warmed up for the Americans down the stretch, it’s fair to say that the Internationals bailed the U.S. out down the stretch. There was a sense of relief on the American side instead of accomplishment, which is noteworthy given that the U.S. entered the final day trailing by three points.
Chris Gotterup earning three points as a rookie, Koivun earning 2.5 points while shouldering the pressures of being the next great American player, and the six captain’s picks going 6-0 in singles were clear bright spots for the Americans.
Credit is due on those fronts, but it was anything but a clean week for the U.S., both inside the ropes from players and outside the ropes operationally, which was the top objective with the 2027 Ryder Cup across the pond approaching. More on that later.
Scottie Scheffler’s bipolar Sunday afternoon
Scottie Scheffler did exactly what was expected of him on Sunday by earning a full point for the U.S. with a 2&1 victory over Nico Echavarria. While the result of the match was never in question, that isn’t to say there wasn’t any drama involving the World No. 1.
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On the 14th hole, a fan yelled during Echavarria’s backswing as he hit his tee shot on the Par 4. Scheffler immediately reprimanded the fan, but then went above and beyond when the match made its way onto the green.
Already in for par on the hole, Scheffler conceded a 32-foot par putt to Echavarria. While the gesture was already classy, it also came at a moment where, if Echavarria had missed the lengthy par putt, the match would have gone to dormie, with Scheffler taking a 4-up lead into the final four holes. Instead, the concession extended the match a bit longer before Scheffler closed things out on the 17th hole.
While that was one of the more professional and classy acts we’ll ever see on the golf course, the same couldn’t be said for Scheffler’s post-match interview with NBC’s Cara Banks.
Scheffler did not play in the afternoon foursomes session on Saturday, which understandably made headlines. Sitting the No. 1 player in the world with your team trailing by three points was a very bold move from U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker, and one that deserves questions, but Scheffler was in no mood to provide answers.
When asked following his match on Sunday about being sat on Saturday, Scheffler didn’t opt to give a generic, media-friendly answer, but instead he put the question back on Banks, asking her if she wanted to talk about Sunday’s match.
Scheffler seems like the consummate professional and a genuinely good person – hell, he showed that on Sunday conceding the putt to Echavarria – but his exchange with Banks made no sense. He has had his moments with the media this season where he’s made it clear that he doesn’t have the time to answer what he sees as dumb questions, but Banks’ question was the question of the weekend.
Nobody wants to hear Scheffler talk about beating the No. 61 player in the world on Sunday when the only exciting thing that happened in the match was a fan shouting in a backswing. The golf world does, however, want to know details around the No. 1 player in the world not playing in all five sessions in an event his team was, at the time, being embarrassed in.
Nobody is perfect, and Scheffler is just a human despite his freakish abilities with a golf club in his hand, but the old adage of sometimes you have to do things you don’t enjoy applies here. Being the No. 1 player in the world means you have to put on a face, especially in a situation like this at a team event where you’re the leader and are asked a totally fair question, and when you have a slip of character, it is going to be criticized.
At the end of the day, Scheffler getting testy with Banks for five seconds is going to be forgotten and has zero effect on his actual job of playing golf, but that doesn’t mean we can’t call it as we see it, which is simply ridiculous.
Americans may have delivered a heaping pile of false hope
This sentiment surrounding this year’s Presidents Cup was no different than every previous edition in that it was supposed to be a building block and gauge for Team USA golf ahead of the following year’s Ryder Cup.
The Americans got the storybook ending by dominating Sunday’s singles matches, and Snedeker avoided officially being labeled the worst captain in team event history, but if anything remotely similar unfolds at the 2027 Ryder Cup, the Americans will be embarrassed by the Europeans in Ireland.
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The Americans will not have the luxury in the Ryder Cup of throwing their 12 players against Europe’s 12 players in a three-point deficit and relying on depth to pull them out of a hole.
If the Americans get swept in a session just as they did by the Internationals during Thursday’s foursomes, a nightmare will unfold for the U.S. in Ireland in 2027. The United States’ inability to even be competitive in the alternate shot format remains a real issue, and if it can not figure something out, it will be a long three days across the pond next year.
The Americans went 2-6 in foursomes during the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black and followed that up with a 2-7 record in foursomes against the Internationals in this year’s Presidents Cup. You’d like to say that the law of averages will even things out and the U.S. will show real life in a foursomes session sooner rather than later, but they’ve been waiting for that to happen for years now.
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The U.S. has not been competitive in a Ryder Cup on foreign soil in each of the last three editions overseas and hasn’t hoisted the trophy in Europe since doing so in England in 1993. It’s long been one of those things that, until it happens, it’s tough to imagine it ever will, and the U.S. having to be nearly flawless against an inferior International team definitely doesn’t change that.
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