One putt decided it
The 18th green at Medinah held its breath. Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns needed a says-it-all birdie to see off Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im, and they got exactly that. Team USA opened the 2026 Presidents Cup with a 3-2 win over the International Team in Thursday’s fourball session, and the world number one carried his side home when the match was there to be lost.
Scheffler had never won a fourball match in a team event before Thursday. That drought is gone now. “Sam hit probably the shot of the match there on 14,” Scheffler said afterward. “I felt like that was really a big moment for us.”
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Four other stories inside the scoreline
Justin Thomas and rookie Jackson Koivun made their own statement, cruising past Corey Conners and Nico Echavarria 4&3. Thomas has now won seven straight Presidents Cup fourball matches, a run that keeps stretching further every two years. Koivun, 21 and playing his first Cup, did not look like a newcomer for a single hole.
The International Team hit back twice. Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Hisatsune knocked off Cameron Young and Xander Schauffele 3&1, and Tom Kim paired with Si Woo Kim to beat Chris Gotterup and Patrick Cantlay by the same 3&2 scoreline that saw Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa get past Ryan Fox and Adam Scott in the other American point.
Twenty-five points still up for grabs
A single point separates the two sides after just one of five sessions. Team USA needs 12 more points to retain the trophy, or 12.5 to extend a winning run that keeps piling up. Twenty-five points remain on the table across the next four sessions, and Thursday made clear neither side plans on giving them away cheaply.
International captain Ogilvy summed up a day that could easily have gone either way. “We had a couple of really good solid matches there and a match go to 18,” he said. USA skipper Brandt Snedeker was just as measured. “I’m really proud of them,” Snedeker said. “A session win is a session win.”
Friday brings foursomes, live from 7pm on Sky Sports Golf, with the gap tight enough that nobody at Medinah is talking about the trophy just yet.
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