Of the 24 players who competed in the Presidents Cup, 17 are on hand this week, and 11 are inside the top 40.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After a successful showing last fall at the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club, Xander Schauffele was feeling the good vibes when he returned to the crown jewel of the Queen City for this week’s 2023 Wells Fargo Championship.
And it showed on the scorecard (through his first 15 holes at least).
Schauffele – who compiled a 3-1-0 record alongside Patrick Cantlay against the International squad in September – was in prime position to lead after day one Thursday, but a pair of costly bogeys over his last three holes left him T-2 with Kevin Streelman, Taylor Moore, Ryan Palmer and K.H. Lee, who teed it up for Trevor Immelman’s worldwide All-Stars.
In a fan-favorite group alongside Presidents Cup teammate Jordan Spieth (72) and opponent Tom Kim (67), Schauffele fired a 5-under 66 to trail Tommy Fleetwood, who birdied his final two holes of the day for a bogey-free 6-under 65, by one. Kim joined Fleetwood in the bogey-free brigade as the only two players to finish the opening round without a blemish on their scorecards.
In his Presidents Cup debut, Kim wowed the crowd at Quail Hollow and finished with a respectable 2-3-0 record, and even squared off against Schauffele and his good friend Cantlay twice. Kim and Hideki Matsuyama lost to Cantlay and Schauffele, 3 and 2, in Friday’s four-ball match, but the South Korean got the upper hand against the American duo alongside fellow countryman Si Woo Kim, 1 up, in Saturday’s four-ball bout.
Of the 24 players who competed in the Presidents Cup, 17 are on hand this week, and 11 are inside the top 40 after round one. Schauffele is T-2 with Lee, while Kim, Cantlay and Adam Scott are all T-6 at 4 under. Even Canadians Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners, who were both an embarrassingly bad 0-4-0 for the International team, sit T-25 and T-37, respectfully.
While the course isn’t playing the same this week as it did in September due to the different time of year and overseeded grass – not to mention the different competition formats – course knowledge goes a long way at a track as demanding as Quail Hollow, and that proved true once again on Thursday.
“He’s just a steady hand on the steering wheel. I know he’s been in every moment a caddie could be in and he’s just a good guy. So I’ve enjoyed the limited time that I’ve spent with him and feel confident that we’ll be a good team out there,” said Cantlay, who noted he hasn’t spoken with Woods about the move. “When I reached out to Joe, he said it was possible and ended up working out and I’m really happy about it.”
Cantlay split with veteran caddie Matt Minister, who was on the bag when he won the 2021 FedEx Cup and was named the PGA Tour Player of the Year, following last month’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
“Yeah, we accomplished a lot together and I’m really proud of all we accomplished,” said Cantlay. “He’s a great friend of mine and we had a lot of good finishes together and a lot of wins. So I’m incredibly grateful to him, just needed a change.”
LaCava, 59, had been on the bag for Woods since 2011, and the pair claimed 11 official wins, including the 2019 Masters (as well as the 2011 Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event). He also subbed in as Cantlay’s caddie for the 2021 Northern Trust when Minister was out with COVID-19.
Patrick Cantlay looks on from the 16th tee during the first round of the Northern Trust, the first event of the FedExCup Playoffs, at Liberty National Golf Club on August 19, 2021 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
When it comes to caddies on Tour, LaCava is as good as it gets. The same can be said for Cantlay, 31, who is currently ranked No. 4 in the world and has finished inside the top five three times this year, with an additional nine top-25 finishes in 11 starts. With that talent comes a spotlight, which illuminated his deliberate approach to the game that fans have had fun calling out over recent weeks.
Cantlay isn’t sure why more people are talking about slow play now, but he is confident that if there is a problem, it’s not because of him.
“If you really wanted to make guys play faster, you would put the tees up and you would put easier hole locations and the greens would roll at 10 if you really wanted it to, and you hope it never blew more than 10 miles an hour,” he explained. “When you get really tricky days and the greens are really fast and the hole locations are on lots of slope, it’s going to take a longer time to play.”
“But like I’ve said before, rounds on Tour have pretty much taken the same amount of time for a number of years now and I don’t think they’re going to set up the golf course in a way, like I said, to make rounds, you know, go a lot faster.”
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PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is on hand this week for the Tour’s ninth designated event of the season, and he told Cantlay the Zurich Classic, a team event that featured an alternate-shot format for the final round, finished 24 minutes ahead of schedule.
“He said no one was complaining that they finished too early,” Cantlay quipped.
Cantlay isn’t concerned about whether or not he’s criticized for his pace of play, but he is rather concerned about the proposed rollback of the golf ball. A representative from the USGA reached out to get his opinion on the idea and the UCLA grad didn’t hold back: “I think it’s a bad idea.”
“I don’t think that it would help the game. I think bifurcation’s really bad for the game,” he explained. “I think one of the best things about our game is that all the people that play at my home club can play the exact same equipment that I do and that’s different than pretty much any other sport.”
“I imagine that the best players are still going to be the best players. If anything, it probably gives more advantage to the guys that hit it far,” said Cantlay. “If they dialed it back how they’re talking about, there’s a lot of guys that would no longer get to a number of par 5s out here, but the guys that can get to those par 5s are still — the guys that get there now with long irons are going to be able to get there with 5-woods or 3-woods. So I think if anything, if they roll it back, the guys that hit it far will get an increased advantage.”
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StrackaLine provides hole-by-hole maps for Quail Hollow, site of the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship on the PGA Tour.
Quail Hollow Club, site of the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship on the PGA Tour, originally was designed by George Cobb and opened in 1961 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has been renovated several times, including by Arnold Palmer and most recently by Tom Fazio.
Quail Hollow has been a regular stop on the PGA Tour or PGA Tour Champions since 1969. It hosted the 2017 PGA Championship, won by Justin Thomas, and also was the site of the 2022 Presidents Cup. It again hosts the PGA Championship in 2025.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week.
Director of Professional Golf isn’t a normal position at golf club, but Quail Hollow isn’t a normal club.
Director of Professional Golf isn’t a position that a normal golf club has space for on its organizational chart, but Quail Hollow isn’t a normal club.
From the 2022 Presidents Cup to the 2025 PGA Championship, the renowned club in Charlotte, North Carolina – home of the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship since 2003 – found itself in a unique situation when it was tasked with hosting four events that are run by three different organizations in a 2 ½ year span.
It’s rare for a golf course to host an annual PGA Tour event as well as major championships, and the club identified the challenge as an opportunity to continue to expand its footprint in the game and created the new position that you won’t find anywhere else.
Adam Sperling is the first to self-deprecate his own ability on the golf course and still can’t help but laugh when he thinks of his new position’s title.
“I think the biggest thing with the title was making sure that nobody can confuse me for a director of golf or a head professional,” said Sperling, who was named for the position on Jan. 31, 2023, following his successful stint as the PGA Tour’s executive director for the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club last fall.
The event saw record ticket, hospitality and sponsorship sales under Sperling’s leadership, and the 41-year-old will now be tasked with charting the future of pro golf at the club.
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‘How do you get better than what’s best?’
John J. Harris founded Quail Hollow after a little encouragement from none other than his good friend Arnold Palmer, and the course was opened in 1961. Less than two years after the clubhouse opened in 1967, Quail Hollow hosted the PGA Tour’s Kemper Open, which remained in Charlotte until 1979. The club then hosted the World Seniors Invitational from 1980-1989 before the PGA Tour returned in 2003 with the Wachovia Championship, now known as the Wells Fargo Championship.
What makes this week’s annual Tour stop in Charlotte special is its status as one of 17 designated events on the 2022-23 PGA Tour schedule, which will offer a total purse of $20 million and feature PGA Tour stars such as defending champion Max Homa, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and more. While the tournament’s future as designated event is unknown, Quail Hollow is contracted to host the event through 2024, before it welcomes the PGA Championship, May 15-18, 2025.
Quail Hollow has a motto – Good to better, better to best – and events at the club have been riding a tailwind since the Tour’s return in 2003. The PGA Championship in 2017 benefitted from the Tour’s 15 years of growth in Charlotte, and the Wells Fargo expanded off the strides made from the PGA Championship. Last year’s Presidents Cup capitalized off both, and with Sperling at the helm, the club hopes the Wells Fargo can grow once more.
“If you keep changing the people involved, it gets hard to connect all those dots. It’s a lot on a club, it’s a lot on membership,” said Sperling. “I’ve joked since I got here that you’re never allowed to get to best because as soon as you get to best, you go back to better. How do you get better than what’s best? I think it’s just a commitment from the club to have somebody thinking about tournament golf 24/7.”
Utility club
Prior to his work at Quail Hollow, Sperling spent nine years as executive director for the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas after previously holding various positions such as director of operations for the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, where he oversaw both the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Pure Insurance Championship on the PGA Tour Champions, as well as a two-year stint as an operations manager for the Tour.
No two days are the same in his new gig, but that’s by design. The last few months have been an adjustment for Sperling, but his previous experiences have all helped him in some way or another at Quail Hollow.
“I had to liken it to any one thing, it’s probably what brought me to the industry, which is getting to work with a lot of different people in a lot of different roles,” Sperling explained. “In the new role, it’s kind of taking that mentality to everybody involved and really just asking the question, ‘How can I help you? What can I do to make your job easier? What can I do to make you know your goals more attainable?’”
In other words, Sperling is a utility club. No two shots are the same, and that goes for his day-to-day schedule, as well.
Sperling also describes himself as a driven person who will always say he could have worked harder or done better, no matter the job. Similar to a high school football coach, he also loves a good motivational quote.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I want to go farther, faster,” said Sperling. “If we can just continue month over month, week over week, day over day … I want to be a catalyst for everybody to go beyond what they thought they could do with golf at Quail Hollow.”
Gannett may earn revenue from sports betting operators for audience referrals to betting services. Sports betting operators have no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. Terms apply, see operator site for Terms and Conditions. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available. Call the National Council on Problem Gambling 24/7 at 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, OH), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN). Must be 21 or older to gamble. Sports betting and gambling are not legal in all locations. Be sure to comply with laws applicable where you reside.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Justin Thomas and Si Woo Kim went out first in the Sunday singles matches at the 2022 Presidents Cup, and the pair of The Players champions didn’t disappoint.
Thomas held a 2-up lead at the turn but started to leak a little oil on the back nine, and Kim was there to take advantage with birdies on Nos. 10 and 11. Tied on the par-4 15th, Kim made an 7-footer for par to keep the match squared, let out a fist pump and proceeded to shush the crowd.
Thomas saw the whole thing while he walked to the 16th tee and didn’t take too kindly to Kim’s gesture to the fans.
“Honestly, at the time, I was pretty pissed off,” said Thomas, who lost the match 1 down to remain winless in Presidents Cup singles. “No, it’s one of those things, I think when you’re in the moment, when you’re on the other side of it, it’s something that gets you motivated, gets you pumped up a little bit.
“So I can say whatever I want about it, but he beat me. So he has the upper hand on me,” Thomas continued. “But we won the Cup, so that’s all that matters.”
The clap-back didn’t stop there.
Earlier in the day during the final round of matches, CBS Sports’ Kyle Porter pointed out how Thomas was frustrated by Kim not conceding what he thought to be a gimme putt on the par-4 9th, which he made to go 2-up in the match. The two-time major champion took to Twitter after the fact to have a little fun at the moment caught on camera.
Four players went undefeated and six failed to earn a win at the 2022 Presidents Cup.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The United States held off a charging International squad to claim the 2022 Presidents Cup, 17½-12½, and extend its win streak to nine events dating to 2005.
In the event’s 28-year history, the Americans have dominated to the tune of a 12-1-1 record, losing in 1998 at Royal Melbourne in Australia and tying in 2003 at Fancourt Hotel and Country Club in South Africa.
Speaking of impressive records, Jordan Spieth made his pitch to be the new Captain America with an impressive 5-0-0 showing this week at Quail Hollow Club, with rookie Max Homa just behind him at 4-0-0 after sitting out Saturday afternoon’s four-ball session. On the other side, rookies Sebastian Munoz (2-0-1) and Christiaan Bezuidenhout (1-0-1) were the lone unbeaten players for the Internationals.
Three players went winless for each team, but only two failed to earn a point, and they’re both from Canada, who will play host in 2024 when the event heads to Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal.
Here’s a breakdown of how each player fared this week by event at the 2022 Presidents Cup.
Breaking down the final matches of the 2022 Presidents Cup.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Internationals made things interesting midway through Sunday’s final round of singles matches at the 2022 Presidents Cup, but in the end, it was the United States who came out on top.
Xander Schauffele clinched the winning point point for the Americans at Quail Hollow Club, defeating Corey Conners, 1 up, to seal the deal and earn the U.S. its ninth consecutive win in the biennial bout against the worldwide all-stars. The Internationals have won just once back in 1998 and earned a tie in 2003. The U.S. have won the other 11 competitions, six by four or more points.
Here’s a breakdown of each of the 12 Sunday singles matches at the 2022 Presidents Cup.
Sunday singles results
Si Woo Kim (Intl.) def. Justin Thomas (U.S.), 1 up
Si Woo Kim shushed the crowd, with his finger and with a clutch birdie putt at 18 to edge Justin Thomas 1 up.
“ It’s really special for me because I play with J.T. a match like three years ago,” said Kim, noting he was beaten on the 13th hole. “I was a little emotional. But this time, I (got) revenge.”
Thomas made birdies on two of the first four holes, clenching his fist after canning the putt at No. 4 and exclaiming, “Let’s go!”
But Kim battled back, rallying on the back nine with birdies at Nos. 10 and 11 to tie the match. Thomas regained the lead at the 12th but gave it back with a bogey at 14. Kim fired up the crowd when he shushed them at 15.
“J.T. give me fist pump, and then I had to do it. And I had to make it, and I made it,” Kim said of his putt to tie the hole. “Then, like, yeah, I had to do something. I think that give me more energy.”
Kim backed up his gesture by taking his first lead of the day with a birdie at 16. Thomas responded with a 4-foot birdie at 17 to send it to the final hole deadlocked.
Both Thomas and Kim hit their approaches to 10 feet. Kim putted first and canned it; Thomas missed on the low side. He dropped to 0-3 in singles in the Presidents Cup. — Schupak
International Team golfer Si Woo Kim (right) shushes the crowd during Sunday singles at the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club. (Photo: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports)
Jordan Spieth (U.S.) def. Cam Davis (Intl.), 4 and 3
Jordan Spieth is winless in singles no more. The American rallied from a 2-down deficit through three holes to defeat Cam Davis, 4 and 3.
“I was more nervous than I probably should have been today just because I want to get that monkey off my back,” Spieth said.
Playing in his fourth Presidents Cup, Spieth hadn’t won in six combined singles matches between the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup.
“I had a great back nine,” said Spieth, who rattled off three straight birdies beginning at No. 11 to take control of the match. “When you go out early as I’ve done pretty much every team event on a Sunday, they’re looking for red on the board, and it feels good to finally provide that.”
It capped off a phenomenal week for Spieth, who had a perfect record of 5-0-0 and became the first player to do so since South Africa’s Branden Grace in 2015.
“He putted great,” Davis said of Spieth. “He kept his momentum early when he wasn’t playing great, and then I think he got a little comfortable when I started missing a few shots.” — Schupak
Team USA golfer Jordan Spieth lines up his chip shot on the second hole during the singles match play of the Presidents Cup golf tournament at Quail Hollow Club. (Photo: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports)
Hideki Matsuyama (Intl.) ties Sam Burns (U.S.)
American Sam Burns and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama dueled to a tie and a half point for each side.
Matsuyama took the early lead with a birdie at the second and stretched the lead to 2 up at the turn. That’s when Burns flipped the match in his favor, making three straight birdies beginning at No. 10 to assume the lead. Burns, however, made a double bogey at 15 to gift-wrap that hole to Matsuyama and the match was tied once more.
Matsuyama nearly stole a full point when his birdie chip at 18 crashed into the flagstick but didn’t drop. Burns had a chance for the win but missed his 23-foot birdie putt.
Burns had a record of 0-2-2 while Matsuyama went 1-3-1. — Schupak
Patrick Cantlay (U.S.) def. Adam Scott (Intl.), 3 and 2
Patrick Cantlay wasn’t going to lose twice in a row, and it showed early in his singles match against the veteran Adam Scott. The American held at least a 2-up lead from the third hole and on and put Scott to bed on the 16th hole, 3 and 2.
Scott won just two holes on Sunday and made more bogeys than birdies to bookend a week to forget that saw him go 2-3-0 in his record 10th appearance in the event. — Woodard
Sebastian Munoz (Intl.) def. Scottie Scheffler (U.S.), 2 and 1
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler held the advantage for most of the front nine before a three-hole swing on Nos. 8-10 saw Sebastian Munoz take control.
Both players drove the green and made eagle on the 325-yard par-4 11th and they also matched each other’s birdie-bogey-par efforts on holes 12-14 before Munoz pulled ahead, 2 up, with birdie on the 15th. Scheffler got one back when Munoz left the door open with bogey on the 16th, but ended the match on the next hole, 2 and 1, after a Scheffler concession.
In his Presidents Cup debut, the reigning Masters champion failed to win a match and went 0-3-1 while Munoz was an impressive 2-0-1. — Woodard
Tony Finau (U.S.) def. Taylor Pendrith (Intl.), 3 and 1
A real back-and-forth match here saw both players lead for at least six holes, with Tony Finau winning the first two before Pendrith won four of the next five to take a 2-up lead of his own.
Slowly but surely the American climbed back with wins on Nos. 9, 12 and 13 to take a 1-up that he never gave back. Consecutive birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 sealed the deal for the 3-and-1 victory and brought the Americans just one point away from victory. — Woodard
Team USA golfer Tony Finau celebrates making his putt on the first green during the singles match play of the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports)
Xander Schauffele (U.S.) def. Corey Conners (Intl.), 1 up
The deciding point came from a tightly-contested match between Corey Conners and Xander Schauffele.
Tied through the first five holes, consecutive wins gave Schauffele a 2-up lead that he extended to 3 up before he let Conners back into the fold. Looking for his country’s first point of the week, the Canadian won Nos. 12-14 to square the match before a bogey of his own gave the lead back to Schauffele on 15. The 16th was squared with birdies and Conners failed to take advantage of a Schauffele bogey on the 17th, which sent the match to the 18th, where par was good enough to decide the event. — Woodard
Sungjae Im (Intl.) def. Cameron Young (U.S.), 1 up
Cameron Young never led his match against Sungjae Im, who won the first three holes with par. Then it was Young’s turn as the young American claimed three of the next five to square the match just before the turn.
The pair went shot-for-shot aside from an Im birdie on the 12th, where he briefly took a 1-up lead before giving it up two holes later after a bogey on No. 15. A Young three-putt on the 17th gave the lead back to Im, which he turned into a 1-up win. — Woodard
K.H. Lee (Intl.) def. Billy Horschel (U.S.), 3 and 1
Billy Horschel’s national team debut didn’t quite go as planned as the 35-year-old went just 1-2-0 after a 3-and-1 loss to K.H. Lee. The South Korean was in control from the jump, winning the first two holes to take a lead that he never relinquished.
In fact, Horschel won just three holes and got as close as 1-down, but this one was never in doubt. — Woodard
Max Homa (U.S.) def. Tom Kim (Intl.), 1 up
Have a debut, Max Homa. The fan-favorite went undefeated at Quail Hollow and had to come back against one of the best players this week, 20-year-old South Korean rising star Tom Kim.
Kim got all the way to 3 up around the turn before Homa caught absolute fire on No. 12, winning four consecutive holes to flip the match by taking advantage of multiple missteps from Kim. Homa never gave it back and ended the week a perfect 4-0-0.
“Best week of golf I could ever imagine. It was very special just to be on this team and to contribute and to bond with the guys,” said Homa. “Some of the moments we’ve had together on the golf course and in the team room have been amazing. I feel very, very, very lucky to be on this team.”
— Woodard
Collin Morikawa (U.S.) def. Mito Pereira (Intl.), 3 and 2
Mito Pereira won just one hole in his match against Collin Morikawa, but it came just a little too late. The pair were tied through four holes before Morikawa made birdie on the par-4 5th, followed by an eagle on the par-5 7th and another birdie on the par-4 8th to take a 3-up lead to the back.
The two-time major champion then went 4 up with a birdie on the 10th before Pereira’s lone win on the 11th. The next five holes were tied as Morikawa did just what he needed to do to put yet another point on the board for the U.S.
“I haven’t won in a while. And just to kind of feel those nerves and kind of feel that energy, it was so exciting,” said Morikawa. “Those are the things we live for. I think every single one of us here on both teams loves that position that you’re in when you’re coming down the stretch or you need to make a putt to win a hole.”
Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Intl.) def. Kevin Kisner (U.S.), 2 and 1
Christiaan Bezuidenhout never let Kevin Kisner lead in this final match that didn’t see a birdie until the 6th hole (and only four more after that). Every time the American was able to square the match, Bezuidenhout was right there to respond and re-claim the lead.
Down the stretch the South African was nails, making birdie on Nos. 14 and 16 to take a 2-up lead which he carried to a 2-and-1 win. — Woodard
Take a scroll through the Presidents Cup team uniforms of the past and present.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Since the event’s debut in 1994, golf fans have seen an array of Presidents Cup.
The Americans are usually donning some display of Red, White and Blue. The Internationals now have a set logo with black and gold colors thanks to Ernie Els’ efforts to create an identity for the team in 2019, but over the years the squad has been a bit more diverse and bold with its uniforms.
As the 2022 Presidents Cup continues on at Quail Hollow Club, take a scroll through some of the best (and worst) team uniforms in the competition’s 28-year history.
“We were in a deep hole,” International team Captain Trevor Immelman said, “and we dug deep.”
The putts started to drop for the International side, none bigger than the 10-foot birdie putt on 18 at Quail Hollow Club by Kim to beat the U.S. team of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, and cut the deficit to 11-7 going into Sunday’s singles session.
“We got to refocus, and we’ve got a lot of pissed off guys that want to come out really strong tomorrow,” said Jordan Spieth.
“Guess I’d be one of those pissed off guys,” Schauffele, who was seated next to Spieth said.
Spieth and Thomas won the lone four-ball match of the afternoon session to stretch the U.S. lead to 11-4 before the International side captured the final three points up for grabs. It was shades of the 2012 Ryder Cup when Europe staged a furious rally on Saturday to set up a comeback dubbed the Miracle at Medinah – from four points behind. As if that isn’t enough of a coincidence, the U.S. captain that year was none other than Love.
“Four points is four points. It’s been a big number,” Love said. “I’ve been four behind before too, you know. We’ve been four ahead, four behind. We’ve watched the Solheim Cup be four ahead. So it’s a magical number.”
If the Internationals are to complete the biggest comeback in the event’s 28-year history and win on American soil for the first time, they’ll need to claim 8½ of the 12 points up for grabs.
Love has stacked his Sunday singles lineup with big names going out early: Justin Thomas in the leadoff spot followed by Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
Speaking on Golf Channel’s Live From, Paul McGinley said, “it’s very important that they don’t leak any more oil. Then the pressure flips onto America in front of the home crowd. Every one of us thought here thought this was over yesterday.”
Despite playing on foreign soil and being outmanned and missing the likes of Cameron Smith, Immelman has molded a team that took his mantra of playing with freedom to heart. Immelman’s lineup is a bit more eclectic and surprisingly left the team’s Energizer Bunny, Kim, to the 10th match rather than send him out early to provide another spark.
“We have our system, and we try and run it,” Immelman explained. “If we’re 10 up or 10 down, we run our system, and we see what happens.”
I want it loud tomorrow Charlotte 🇺🇸 Bring the damn noise
Australian Adam Scott, who is competing in his 10th Presidents Cup, liked what he saw on Saturday. It was the future of a team that even if it doesn’t pull off an unlikely upset could be the core for years to come, including someday when he’ll be calling the shots. Saturday’s rally is a day that he’ll not soon forget.
“I think over the course of my career in this, there hasn’t been many times I’ve felt momentum going our way,” he said. “And today, we had the momentum. We certainly have it finishing this evening, and it will be great if we could keep it rolling tomorrow.”
The Internationals defeated the Americans, 3-1, after flipping two matches over the last three holes.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The momentum swayed back toward the Internationals on Saturday at the 2022 Presidents Cup, but Trevor Immelman’s squad still has a steep hill to climb.
After splitting the morning foursomes session at Quail Hollow Club, the worldwide all-stars won their first session of the week in the afternoon, mounting a pair of late comebacks in the first and last matches to swipe a 3-1 win and bring the overall score to 11-7.
Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, the lone American winners in the afternoon, remained unbeaten on the week after another impressive performance that failed to reach the 18th tee.
Here’s a breakdown of each Saturday four-ball match on Day 3 at the 2022 Presidents Cup.
