For International Team, now is the time at Presidents Cup

MEDINAH, Ill. – Corey Conners scooped his ball from the hole on the 18th green at Medinah Country Club, having steeled his nerves to bury a 5-foot par putt that secured the final point on the board for the International Team at the Presidents Cup on Saturday, and his teammates gathered to celebrate.

Players, caddies and support staff formed the sort of high-five line you might see from a pennant-clinching baseball team, as one word rang out from the visiting side: relentless.

“We’ve just been relentless all week,” said Nick Taylor, who teamed with Conners in what turned out to be the last match of the day. “That’s been the message through the captain.”

This is bordering on historic territory, just the fourth time in 16 competitions that the Internationals will carry a lead into Singles play. They lead by three points, 10.5 to 7.5, and now need just five points out of a possible 12 on Sunday to lift the trophy for the first time since 1998 – the year Min Woo Lee and Sungjae Im were born.

The Internationals led by a 10-8 margin seven years ago in Australia, but ultimately couldn’t hang on as Tiger Woods led the Americans to a Royal Melbourne rally. It’s not exactly coincidental, though, that the only two times their lead entering Sunday exceeded the current margin were 1998 and 2003 – the lone instances they got their hands on the trophy, with the latter ending in a memorable tie.

Twenty-eight years of near-misses, blowouts and questions about the event's structure have led to a singular moment: if the Internationals are going to get over the hump, now is the time.

“We’re just trying to be disciplined,” Min Woo Lee said. “We know what our job is to do.”

While the players have hit all the shots this week, Captain Geoff Ogilvy's fingerprints have been all over the team’s performance and he’s a big reason why they’re going to bed tonight with the upper hand. A stoic leader behind the microphone, he has made several moves that have, to date, produced plenty of fruit. Two years after Lee played only two matches at Royal Montreal, he has played the Aussie for all five sessions, accruing a 2-1-1 team match record as he seemed to be unlocked by a Foursomes combination with The Open champion Ryan Fox. He carved a couple of points out of newcomers like Ryo Hisatsune and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, teaming them with veterans Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama.

Then there’s his decision to lean on Conners, who entered the week with a forgettable 2-7-0 all-time record. The 34-year-old was hardly viewed as a workhorse entering the week but contributed to a pair of pivotal Foursomes rallies alongside fellow Canadian Taylor: a toppling of Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns on Friday followed by Saturday afternoon’s heroics, when the pair were 3-down after 10 holes and won four of the next five holes to flip the match and steal a point from the American duo of Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman.

Conners said he “had a pretty good idea” that he would go all five sessions entering the week, and he has more than validated Ogilvy’s trust with a gutty performance that has yielded a pair of points.

“I love the team format, love this event. I knew my energy level would be okay,” Conners said. “So I was expecting that, and I think expecting that heading into the week was helpful in setting up my mind to be prepared for it.”

Speaking to media after Saturday’s play, U.S. Captain Brandt Snedeker all but fell on his sword, admitting “I don’t think I’ve held up my end of the bargain” with his pairings and decisions. On the flip side, Ogilvy hasn’t lost a dash of his calm and composed demeanor, coolly steering the Internationals into nearly uncharted waters.

The task ahead won’t be easy. The Internationals have never won or even tied on U.S. soil, coming as close as a one-point loss back in 1996. They scraped through both sessions on Saturday despite faltering out of the gates in nearly every match, as the Americans had visions of sweeps in both sessions before the visitors stormed back to nearly level the score.

But Ogilvy likes his position, and he’s got the backing of his team with everything still to play for on Sunday.

“They showed a lot of passion and fight today,” Ogilvy said. “We know what we’re about. The boys are very passionate about this team and this event. They really love this tournament. … It’s a really good team.”

Twelve Singles matches will determine whether that “really good” team will be remembered as a historic one. The Internationals have the upper hand, and the Americans are in a rare position of reeling on the ropes.

While they’ll face a hungry and talented opponent eager to turn the tide on home soil in Chicago, Ogilvy has steered his team into an enviable position. Now they’ll look to withstand another American charge to put three decades of questions to rest.

The job isn’t finished, and the remaining task won’t be easy. But one thing is clear: if there was ever a time for the Internationals to win the Presidents Cup, this is it.