Internationals have momentum heading into weekend
MONTREAL—Adam Scott, never a trophy winner in 10 Presidents Cup appearances, was overjoyed at the Internationals’ stunning fightback on Friday to pull level with the United States at 5-5 heading into the weekend.
Scott, a great product of Australian golf, and Canada’s Taylor Pendrith won, 5&4, over Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala as part of a 5-0 foursomes sweep after dropping all five Thursday four-ball matches.
“Incredible day for us,” Scott said. “To come back and show everyone what this team is made of after a tough day out there is just incredible.
“We’ve got a big day tomorrow and a bigger day Sunday. I think we can enjoy this and then come out incredibly focused. But this team knows what it’s capable of now.”
The Americans lead the all-time rivalry, 12-1-1, and seek a 10th consecutive triumph, having lost only in 1998. Four four-ball and foursomes matches are set Saturday before 12 final singles on Sunday.
A side would need 15-1/2 points to win the Presidents Cup.
“This team is very capable of pushing the US team all the way this week and today was a good step for us to make it a big fight this weekend,” Scott said.
“We’ve got a bit of momentum going. Hopefully we can keep it rolling. We’re going to have to be on it, be focused and keep our levels high because that team’s no joke. We’re going to have to fight really hard if we want to be in there on Sunday afternoon.”
Scott and Pendrith will reunite in Saturday’s morning four-ball opener against top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and two-time major winner Collin Morikawa.
Other four-ball matches send Tony Finau and second-ranked Xander Schauffele against Canadians Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes, South Koreans Tom Kim and Kim Si-woo against Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark, and Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns against Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and South Korean Im Sung-jae.
Scott, who became the all-time Internationals point leader with 22, passing Ernie Els, has never hoisted the hardware but has confidence this team can get him there at age 44.
