Xander Schauffele and Tony Finau There was a ball during the preliminary fourball match on Thursday Presidents Cup,
He even pointed out his 1-up win over Byung Hun An jason day A “party”, as Schauffele closed out the match with a spectacular birdie on the 18th hole.
“We knew what we had to do,” Schauffele said.
“Tony started the ninth with the party in the lead and then we started to get the lead. He kept patting my back the whole day. I felt it was my turn to pat him on the back.”
The Americans took a 1-up lead on the 18th tee as Schauffele made a spectacular birdie on the previous hole, the par-3 17th. But things got difficult for the Americans for a while. After Schauffele found the fairway, Finau released his ball into the penalty area, giving the internationals a glimmer of hope. The match also became 2-on-1. But Schauffele made his clutch jean flexible And after blocking his approach to less than three feet, moments later An hit his second shot to about five feet, giving himself a great chance to tie the match.
“They closed the gap after 16 and my guy (Xander) held on right there,” Finau said of his teammate.
“That was all there was to it. He’s a major champion for a reason, and today I definitely saw why…he’s a dream partner. He’s supported me, and I try to support him. We did a good job on that today. We deserved to win. I feel like we played much better than them. This is the beauty of playing matches. Momentum is a crazy thing, and they were able to put some momentum on us until the last few holes. You have a guy like Xander on your team; He closes the door on the 17th and 18th. It’s fun to be a part of a match like this, but especially to win it.”
An’s birdie on 15 and Day’s par on 16 wiped out Schauffele and Finau’s 2-up lead. The Americans missed a pair of par putts to within four feet on the 16th green, a shocking development that gave hope to the internationals. But Schauffele snapped their momentum with birdies on the 17th and 18th holes, putting the first points on the board for the red, white and blue.
The Americans won the next four matches and now have a commanding 5-0 lead – a far cry from last year’s start. ryder cupThe Europeans were 4-0 after last year’s inaugural season, so the US knows how international players are feeling right now. But at least the Americans didn’t suffer massive losses on home soil, unlike this year’s international matches, which needed a good start at Royal Montreal to put pressure on the heavily favored Americans. But that mission failed, partly because of the Americans’ superiority as a team and partly because of Schauffele’s clutch genes.
Jack Milko is the golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. please check @_PlayingThrough For more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko Too.