Day 3 of the 2024 Presidents Cup is in the books and after a tense day of close matches, the U.S. grabbed an 11-7 lead heading into Sunday singles. We call ’em like we see ’em around here. They are:
Winners
U.S.A. in four-balls: Even with the Americans’ decades-long dominance in the Presidents Cup, they’ve never had an effort as strong in four-balls as this week: 8-1. Only the team of Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark lost, having run into the Kim & Kim Show on Saturday morning.
U.S.A. in foursomes: This is usually the Americans’ weakest format, but they swung a couple of matches late and won the Saturday afternoon session 3-1 to take a commanding lead into Sunday.
Sam Burns: With the alternating sweeps on Thursday and Friday, perfect individual records are going to be hard to come by—but Burns is a singles win away, sitting at 3-0 with a Friday rest.
Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley: The team-event rookie carried the No. 1 player in the world early in the afternoon in foursomes, and Scheffler delivered late with a clutch wedge shot to gimme distance on the 14th hole in an all-square match, which flipped his match and quite possibly the momentum throughout the course. It was a 2-0 day for Scheffler, who is playing up to his world ranking.
Patrick Cantlay: His birdie at the 18th to win in the fading light sure felt like more than one point, giving the U.S. a four-point advantage for Sunday and taking the air out of the Kims.
Losers
Brian Harman and Max Homa: U.S. captain Jim Furyk went straight off the points list for his six picks and Harman and Homa were at the bottom at No. 11 and 12—and the most second-guessed. They have played together in two foursomes matches and lost both.
Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim: It hurts to put them here because they were an absolute blast in their afternoon battle with Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. But when Im holed a ridiculous pitch shot on 16 he did the Steph Curry night-night dance…even though that only squared his match with two holes to play rather than actually putting the Americans to sleep. When Cantlay buried a bloodless 15-footer on 18 for birdie, Si Woo couldn’t answer and the match was lost—a deflating finish for the International’s most high-octane duo.
Mike Weir: The International captain saw his team’s momentum from Friday’s sweep fizzle with a 1-3 Saturday four-ball session—then sent the exact same pairs out for foursomes. They hung in, but the scoreboard doesn’t lie, and his team went 1-3 again. Now the home team needs a Sunday miracle.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Presidents Cup Day 3 Winners and Losers: U.S. Prevails on Tense Afternoon to Take 11-7 Lead Into Sunday.
