Like the opening tee shot wasn’t nerve-wracking enough.
The United States has a lot to celebrate after opening the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a 4-1 victory in the first foursomes session Thursday over the International squad.
On Friday, the team had two high-profile visitors on the first tee — the 42nd and 43rd presidents of the United States, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Like the opening tee shot wasn’t nerve-wracking enough.
Check out some of the photos from the presidential visit at the 2022 Presidents Cup.
Well, another Tom has joined him in the ripped-pants ranks. Tom Kim, the 20-year-old Presidents Cup rookie, tore his pants before the start of his Friday four-ball match. He’s paired with Hideki Matsuyama and the talented combo is set to face off against Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Luckily for Kim, they were able to find an extra pair of pants and he’s good to go for the afternoon.
The best part is this isn’t the first time he’s done it this week. He ripped his pants during tournament preparation, too.
Rumor on the range is that Tom Kim has ripped his pants. Even more surprising, this is the second time this week he’s done so😂
The Presidents Cup, now in its 14th edition, first launched in 1994.
The Presidents Cup, now in its 14th edition, first launched in 1994.
Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Prince William County, Virginia, was the host site for the first biennial competition pitting the top 12 American golfers vs. 12 of the best golfers from around the world, minus the European nations.
The 38th President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford, was named honorary chairman.
The team captains were Hale Irwin, who also played for the U.S., and David Graham for the International squad.
The U.S. won that inaugural event, 20-12. Davis Love III went 4-0-1 that week, while Fred Couples went 3-0. Jay Haas (3-2-0) and Jim Gallagher, Jr. (3-1-1) also each won three matches for the U.S.
The International squad, which lost Greg Norman just days before the competition due to illness, was led by Vijay Singh, who went 3-1-1.
“I told the guys last night we need to set the tone and we did.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Patrick Cantlay was walking up the first hole at Quail Hollow in the Presidents Cup and said to his caddie Matt Minister that playing as a team with his American partner Xander Schauffele provided a level of comfort in a format where players essentially hit half the shots.
After all, he and Schauffele have become a dangerous tandem not to be messed with in the last three international team competitions and are regular Tuesday practice-round partners when they play the same events and willing to take on all comers in money matches. Not to mention that they won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in late April, the lone two-man team event in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup regular season.
“We’ve now played so many times we feel so comfortable,” Cantlay said. “I said to my caddie on the first hole that even though it is alternate shot it feels totally normal. I think that’s an advantage for us in that format.”
Xander Schauffele (left) and Patrick Cantlay (right) hold up the Zurich Classic trophy and belts after winning the final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans golf tournament. (Photo: Andrew Wevers-USA TODAY Sports)
In the first of five foursomes matches (also known as alternate-shot) contested on Thursday for the Presidents Cup, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele of Team USA pounded Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Scott 6 and 5. It marked the second-earliest finish in a match the U.S. won in Presidents Cup history.
“I told the guys last night we need to set the tone,” Schauffele said, “and we did. Playing this format on a day like today and not making any bogeys, it’s exactly what we need.”
The dynamic duo for the U.S. improved to a perfect 3-0 in foursomes at the Presidents Cup – 5-0 including the Ryder Cup – to put the first point on the board. Cantlay-Schauffele grabbed the lead with a par at the third. It took five holes for the American side to make a birdie but once the seal was broken the U.S poured it on with three birdies in a row to open a 4-up lead. The Internationals won its only hole of the day at the short par-4 eighth when Schauffele rimmed out his birdie putt.
The International team had a chance to cut into its deficit when Matsuyama stuck his tee shot to six feet at No. 10, but Scott missed the putt. That took the wind out of the sails of the International side as they bogeyed the final three holes.
“You always expect your opponent to come back strong. We got lucky there on 10. That could’ve been a big one that they missed, and we used that as momentum to finish off this match,” Cantlay said.
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele go bogey-free to win 6&5 over Scott and Matsuyama.
Cantlay/Schauffele in foursomes at Ryder + Presidents Cups:
5-0-0 Only 1 match reached 18 33 holes won 17 holes lost
The pairing of Cantlay and Schauffele was the brainchild of assistant captain Fred Couples, who watched the two Presidents Cup rookies play gin on the 26-hour flight from the Bahamas to Australia in 2019 and told then U.S. Captain Tiger Woods he sensed the making of a winning combination.
“They just play really good, smart, strategic golf and they’ve become best friends so what’s the worst thing that can happen?” Couples, the former Masters champion and three-time winning U.S Presidents Cup captain asked rhetorically. “They lose.”
But at last year’s Ryder Cup and again Thursday, all they do is win. They have become an automatic pairing, which U.S. Captain Davis Love III was wise enough not to overthink. Asked to describe the conversation with Love about teaming with Cantlay again, Schauffele said, “It was kind of like, I’m assuming you want to do this. If that’s cool with you guys, we’re just going to run it back. So it was sort of a very chill conversation, nothing too serious.”
Even with the reconfigured layout to ensure the Green Mile would get plenty of action, the Americans only walked one-third of it. Golf Channel commentator John Wood, who caddied in several of these competitions, noted one of the oddities of a rout.
“The carts start to follow you around for the shuttle ride in because they think you have a chance to close it out,” he said. “It’s great when you’re up, but when you’re down, it feels like the buzzards are circling.”
They circled around Scott, who endured another disheartening day, falling to 7-9-2 in foursomes. The 42-year-old Australian is making his 10th appearance in the biennial team competition and still is seeking his first win. (The match ended in a tie in 2003.)
“Can you imagine? It sucks to lose these things,” said fellow Aussie Geoff Ogilvy, an assistant captain for the International team, who called Scott the captain of the players. “They’re all leaning on him. He just wants to win it for everybody. It’s like he wants to win it for everybody who never got a chance to win one.”
Check out these images from the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club.
The 2022 Presidents Cup is over at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the Americans winning it for a 12th time in 14 stagings of the event.
The biennial event pits 12 United States golfers against a team of 12 international golfers (except Europe) in a four-day match play quest for the cup.
This year, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth lead the American side while Hideki Matsuyama, Corey Conners and Adam Scott lead the International team.
Fresh off his second-straight Fortinet Championship win, Max Homa is making his team-event debut and will sport the red, white and blue for the first time.
The U.S. has still not lost on home soil. The 2024 competition will be held at Royal Montreal in Canada.
Check out some of the best photos from the week in Charlotte below:
There’s a three-hole stretch at Quail Hollow Club that will offer a demanding test.
If you’ve been named after a novel written by horror master Stephen King, there must be an abundance of chilling, eerie features associated with your existence.
Even if the terror in question resides among the soft, rolling hills of a peaceful golf course in the Queen City.
Seriously, can evil and golf really co-exist?
At Quail Hollow Club they certainly do.
During a 1,200-plus-yard stroll covering three holes – that would be the 16th, 17th and 18th – danger, horror and angst refuse to be disguised at the annual home of the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.
While it is certainly not as fatal as depicted in the 1999 movie adaption of the same name starring Tom Hanks, where death row inmates take their final steps to the execution chamber on a floor painted a dull green, the dreaded emerald sweep of land at Quail Hollow leaves players gasping for air and heartily exhaling when all is said and done.
In short, the journey is likely to be a good walk spoiled.
That will surely be the case at the 14th edition of the Presidents Cup, where the U.S. will try to continue its dominance of the Internationals. And organizers of the biennial clash have tossed in a major kicker concerning the trifecta of terror. More on that later.
“It’s got to be one of the toughest stretches in golf,” USA’s Brandt Snedeker said. “There’s no way to miss them. There’s no bail-out on any of the holes really.
“You just have to suck it up and get through it.”
Or as Quail Hollow member and 2012 U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson said: “I’ve thought about this many times. I can’t think of a three-hole stretch, including the major championships, that is tougher than the Green Mile.”
How tough is it? Let’s add another movie reference and call on Clubber Lang’s prediction in Rocky II: Pain. Consider: Each hole of the white-knuckle stretch features dangerous water hazards, potentially puzzling elevation changes, strategically placed bunkers and Bermuda greens that are not to be messed with.
This was the result of a major renovation completed ahead of the 2016 Wells Fargo Championship, which included all 18 greens being rebuilt, greens and tee boxes shifted, more than 100 trees removed and length added to the layout.
In five editions of the Wells Fargo Championship since the makeover, the 494-yard, par-4 18th has ranked as the toughest hole in the tournament three times and second once, while the 217-yard, par-3 17th was the toughest hole in 2019 and was never worse than sixth on the list of menacing holes. The par-4 506-yard 16th? It was the third toughest hole in three of those contests.
And yes, the field average for each hole was over-par each tournament, including in 2021 when the 18th played to a 4.456 average, making it the second toughest par-4 on the PGA Tour that year.
“Those are three really brutal finishing holes,” Aussie Adam Scott said. “If you can survive those holes and win, you’ve certainly proved that to yourself because they’re so demanding. There is no breather.”
With that, here’s a quick snapshot of each hole.
No. 16 at Quail Hollow Club, which will play as No. 13 in the Presidents Cup (Photo: Ben Jared/PGA Tour)
The 16th is a par-4 playing to 506 yards. The hole could be tipped out to around 530 yards. The green was shifted 80 yards to the left, right smack up against a large lake. A sizeable, deep fairway bunker on the right must be avoiding on the downhill tee shot. Bunkers fronting the green are best to be avoided.
“The tee shot isn’t overly difficult, but then you get to your second shot and see a lot of water. In the right conditions, you can sort of attack. But it’s rarely the right conditions,” said Justin Thomas, who won the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club.
The 17th is a par-3 playing to 223 yards. The hole could be stretched to 235 yards. The tee shot is over water, with only land to the right side of the green offering you safety from the H2O. The green is usually firm – OK, it’s nearly concrete at times – which means even well struck shots to back pins can bounce and then roll into the water.
No. 17 at Quail Hollow Club, which will play as No. 14 in the Presidents Cup. (Photo: Ben Jared/PGA Tour)
“Even hitting a fairly good shot at 17, you can still hit it in the water. All you’re trying to do when it’s playing long is hit the green. And if the wind is blowing, you have to make sure to hit land,” Spain’s Sergio Garcia said. (Side note: Thomas’ better-than-good 7-iron in the final round of the PGA Championship basically sealed his victory).
The 18th is a par-4 playing to 494 yards. A creek and heavy rough runs down the entire left side of the hole while a dense collection of trees and problematic bunkers protect the right side of the fairway. The tee shot is downhill and the green is slight raised.
“There’s no bailout on the hole and you just have to come up with your best. You can’t ease up after a great drive. It’s just one tough hole,” said Aussie Jason Day, the victor of the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship.
In summation of the stretch, we offer USA’s Rickie Fowler’s take (he won his first PGA Tour title in the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship): “You just have to buckle up and survive.”
No. 18 at Quail Hollow Club, which will play as No. 15 in the 2022 Presidents Cup. (Photo: Ben Jared/PGA Tour)
That’s what Rory McIlroy did in 2021, the most recent time the club played host to the Wells Fargo Championship. In the final round, McIlroy birdied the 14th and 15th holes to take a two-stroke advantage to the start of the Green Mile.
The he made a big mistake as he started to think how great it would be to see his wife, Erica, and 8-month-old daughter, Poppy, behind the 18th green and celebrate with them on their first Mother’s Day.
He survived the 16th and 17th with textbook pars to maintain a two-shot lead. But then he set off alarm bells when he pulled his tee shot on the 18th just to the left of the creek and onto a sidehill of nasty rough.
He was going to try and slash the ball to safety with a lob wedge but his caddie, Harry Diamond, talked him into taking a penalty drop. McIlroy did and from 200 yards found the green with an 8-iron and two-putted for the one-shot win.
It was his first triumph in 553 days. And McIlroy, who won his first PGA Tour title at Quail Hollow in 2010, became the only three-time winner of the event.
“Those closing three holes are pretty tough, especially with the crosswinds out there,” McIlroy said. “I made it hard for myself, but hit a great third shot into the 18th there and was able to two-putt and get the job done.
“It’s a tough stretch, one of the toughest stretches that we play all year. I think 17 is the most difficult of the closing stretch. Especially off that back tee, you’re raised up and you’ve got that very skinny green. On 16, you have to be aggressive off the tee. You have to take on that bunker on the right and try to get it down there as far as you can. It’s a long enough hole. And the same thing on 18. I think aggressiveness off the tee; you can reward yourself with a little shorter iron shot in and be able to take on something a little bit more on the green.
“I’ve had my fair share of good runs on that stretch and bad runs.”
Now, back to the kicker. Because the Green Mile is the star of the golf course, those in charge of the Presidents Cup rerouted the layout to help ensure that players in the match-play format will reach the three holes.
Thus, the Green Mile will play as holes 13-14-15, with the par-5 10th, the par-4 11th and the par-4 ninth pinch-hitting as the closing three holes.
The Green Mile will follow two risk-reward holes – the drivable par-4 11th (annually the 14th) and the uphill, reachable par-5 12th (annually the 15th). That five-hole stretch – with each hole guarded by water – is sure to please.
But it will be the Green Mile that will shine the brightest – for the good or bad.
“A lot happens on those three holes,” USA’s Jordan Spieth said. “That is where you go to see some triumph and disaster.”
The 2022 Presidents Cup merchandise tent is stocked.
The 2022 Presidents Cup has arrived at Quail Hollow Club and fans were allowed on site starting Tuesday. The competition starts Thursday and concludes on Sunday.
The biennial competition pits a 12-member American team against the top 12 players from around the world, minus Europe, making up the International squad.
Team USA leads the all-time series 11-1-1 and the International team seeks to win on foreign soil for the first time.
As for the merchandise tent, it is stocked with gear, from shirts and hats, to belts and towels, from framed art to North Carolina license plates and more.
Max Homa and Jordan Spieth both made Team USA thanks to captain’s picks from Davis Love III and are in the middle of preparation for the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
This will be Homa’s first appearance representing the United States while Spieth will be making his fourth start against the Internationals.
On Tuesday, the two fan favorites were asked about their old AIM usernames. You remember AIM, it was the original instant messenger we all used before Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Instagram. And, looking back, we’re sure you regret an old username or two.
It’s almost time for team golf that actually matters.
For a week, the game can forget about team names that closely resemble comic-book action blurbs and get back to why we love these events in particular. Winning for country.
The 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club is set to kick off Thursday with five four-ball matches.
The United States squad, led by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, is a heavy favorite to win at -847, while it’s -1205 to raise the cup.
Since there’s very little value in placing a bet on the home-country team, let’s take a look at some interesting prop bets for the week in North Carolina.
