The United States continued to dominate the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow, North Carolina, US, despite a spirited display on Friday by Trevor Immelman’s International side with the US leading the International Team by 8 – 2.
A total of 15 and half points are needed to win the trophy.
Immelman, 42 year-old captain of the International Team, split up his experienced day one pairing of Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama and instead put the Australian with Cam Davis.
The pair were defeated by an energised Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, losing 2&1 in the fourballs.
Spirited performance
Sungjae Im and Sebastian Munoz put in a spirited performance as they tied with Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns.
Scheffler is the first reigning World No.1 who has not won either of his opening matches in the Presidents Cup.
The Masters champion had a putt to win the match at the 18th hole but couldn’t believe that his putt stopped seemingly a matter of millimetres from dropping.
Mito Peireria and Christiaan Bezuidenhout also halved their match with Kevin Kisner and Cameron Young.
PGA Tour rookie Tom Kim, playing alongside Matsuyama - went down 3&2 against the seemingly unstoppable pairing of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.
In the final match, Presidents Cup rookie Max Homa, who has won four times on the PGA Tour now – played remarkable golf down the stretch.
He sent two towering iron shots into the 17th and 18th greens and duly converted both birdie putts to win 1 up with Billy Horschel against the Canadian pairing of Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith.
Bizarre day
Thomas told the media: “Yeah, it was great. It was another kind of bizarre day for me personally in terms of some of the shots I hit. But, man, we ham and egged it so well. Jordan really, really came through for us those last five, six holes.”
Saturday’s format will see four fourball matches and four foursome matches played.
There will be 12 singles matches on Sunday.
The US have won 11 of the previous 13 meetings, with the International Team winning once and another match tied.
