It’s difficult to know where to start at the Presidents Cup on Friday, especially after the International team’s morale seemed to be at a low following the US sides 5-0 victory in the first session of four balls.
Certainly, the International side would need a big day to get themselves back in contention and, after three early wins, the remaining two International pairs managed to get over the line to claim a 5-0 session in the foursomes to bring the scores back to 5-5 going into the weekend.
Multiple records fell and the first one came via Sungjae Im and Hideki Matsuyama, who defeated the usually reliable pair of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele 7&6 to get the first point on the board.
Winning the opening hole, the International pair won the second with a birdie before claiming the fourth, sixth and eighth to be 5-up at the turn. Birdieing seven holes on the bounce, they managed to wrap up the win on 12th, with the 7&6 result tying the record of the largest margins of victory in Presidents Cup history.
Shortly after, Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith secured a 5&4 win over Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa. The victory was a significant one for Scott, who not only picked up a 22nd point in the competition, but overtook Ernie Els to become the International team’s leading points scorer.
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The biggest record to fall, though, was the fact that it’s the first time across both the Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup history that sessions have been a clean sweep back-to-back. What’s more, in 13 editions of the tournament, the International team had just four wins of 5&4 or greater but, in three of the matches on Friday, they claimed three victories of 5&4 or more.
Going into the weekend, the scores are now 5-5, with two sessions taking place on Saturday. In the morning, there will be four matches of fourballs, with four matches of foursomes taking place in the afternoon. On Sunday, all 24 players will face off in singles.
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