Unprecedented start for Internationals
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MELBOURNE, Australia – Adam Scott walked confidently towards the 18th fairway at Royal Melbourne having secured his first win in a Four-Ball match at the Presidents Cup since 2005.
“That’s one,” he said with a steely glare in his eye.
“Four more to go.”
Scott was referring to the Thursday morning Four-Ball session that his International side had already won as they watched the final match of the day come down the last. Soon after they had secured another point to set up a dominant 4-1 lead over the Americans.
It is the biggest opening session lead for the Internationals in Presidents Cup history and just the fourth time they’ve been able to grab an early lead. On two of the previous three they won (1998) and tied (2003) – the only time the team has had their hands on the Cup since its 1994 inception.
Captain Ernie Els has always pushed a simple message… win every session and you win the Cup. It is why Scott was just as focused on the four still to come rather than the euphoria around the one just dominated.
“Obviously we are all elated with the result of today. We've really had a big focus on getting off to that good start and it's happened,” Scott said.
“That was the job done for today. No doubt we'll enjoy this afternoon, but we have four more sessions to also get the job done. Tomorrow's another very important day for us out here. Our goal is to come out and try and win that session.
“This is a very strong American Team with a lot of depth, and they can keep throwing at us every session from here on out and we're going to have to keep throwing it back at them.”
Scott is right to be measured. While they did well at Four-Ball… that has always been the case at Royal Melbourne. They’ve never lost a Four-Ball session at the iconic Australian venue. But Friday brings the Foursomes format into play – sometimes called alternate shot. The last time the International team won a Foursomes session was 2005.
But this time Els is ready. He is data driven this week. Eyebrows were raised when he announced his pairings for Four-Ball but the proof is in the pudding. The analytics Els has relied on meant the team already knew well ahead of time who would play Friday. So while plenty were again surprised when he split up all of his successful teams from Thursday – they shouldn’t be.
The importance of the session for the Internationals is highlighted by Els going with Scott and his other veteran Louis Oosthuizen as a team first off. They will be leant on to set the tone.
“I'm so impressed with the way Ernie has handled this thing,” Scott said.
“He's got it mapped out for us. We all know what our job is and what's going to happen. It's a very important session for us that we get out there and try and win. The Big Easy has definitely kept us very calm this week, and you can see that today the way a lot of our rookies played.”
Calmness was not a trait Scott – a veteran playing his ninth Presidents Cup without a win – had on the opening tee. The Australian 13-time PGA TOUR winner feels a lot of weight on his shoulders playing in his home country for his idol and mentor Els.
His opening tee shot was a duck hook into trees and it took a few holes for the 39-year-old to settle into his rhythm. His rookie partner Byeong Hun An covered his early stumbles before Scott birdied the par-3 3rd and set his team on a winning path.
“It's tough. There's a lot of buildup and trying not to put pressure on myself, it's almost impossible,” Scott, who improved to 15-20-5 all time, said.
“It's important playing here in Australia, but we did a nice job today. Ben had me covered early while I was shaky. After a couple holes, I settled down and hit some shots. It was good fun.”
Scott and An provided the second of four International points on the board with their 2 and 1 win over Tony Finau and Bryson DeChambeau. The first point of the Cup actually went to the U.S. side thanks to playing captain Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas winning 4 and 3 over Marc Leishman and Joaquin Niemann. It was the only bright spot for Woods’ team.
Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer smashed Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland 4 and 3 to get the home side on the board. Adam Hadwin and Sungjae Im beat Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay 1 up before Hideki Matsuyama and C.T. Pan took care of Webb Simpson and Patrick Reed by the same margin.
Woods had originally planned to sit out the Foursomes session on Friday, but he was clearly the best performed player in the U.S. team with six birdies in his match. As such he pivoted and will go out with Thomas again.
“This is a long four days. I mean, we have to go earn this Cup. Just because we lost the session doesn't mean the Cup's over,” Woods said.
“There's a long way to go. A lot of points available. The guys will regroup and we'll come out tomorrow ready to go.”
They’ll need to. No team has ever lost the Presidents Cup after winning the first session by three or more points.