CHARLOTTE, NC – Jordan Spieth capped a perfect week at the Presidents Cup and the Americans ran away with the Saudi-sponsored LIV Golf Series to make it nine straight wins against a depleted international team.
The Internationals showed a lot of fight. They don’t just have a cup to show for it.
That remains only in the hands of the American team that held the European record at last year’s Ryder Cup.
Xander Schauffele put on a clinic when he made a 6-foot par putt on the 18th hole to take a 1-over lead over Corey Connors. That gave the Americans 15½ points with five matches on the course and they won 17½ to 12½.
Connors and Taylor Penderitt were the only Canadians on the team to not contribute a point. He had a chance to get the game going with a three from 25 feet on the 17th and hit it from the fairway to the fairway on the 18th.
Spieth beat Cameron Davis 4-and-3 and made putts from across Quail Hollow, denying the Internationals — who needed a big Sunday singles performance — any early momentum.
Spieth is only the sixth player to win all five matches at the Presidents Cup, joining Justin Thomas in winning all four of his group matches.
Spieth, a three-time major champion and world No. 1, qualified for the U.S. team for the first time at age 20. But he never won a singles match — 0-3 at the Presidents Cup, 0-3-1 at the Ryder Cup.
And then he fell 2 down after two holes before turning in a big way.
“I was more worried than I should have been because I wanted to get my monkey off my back,” Spieth said. And you feel good about presenting it.”
Thomas was trying to join him, but lost to Si Woo Kim in a match that came down to a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole.
no matter. As Patrick Cantley crushed Adam Scott, and Tony Finau rallied from 2 down to beat Penderitz, the result was as inevitable as ever.
The Americans improved to 12-1-1 in the series that began in 1994, with their only losses coming at Royal Melbourne in 1998 and a tie in South Africa in 2003.
The International fell 8-2 two days after the opening with a team that featured eight starters, half of whom replaced players such as British Open champion Cameron Smith and Louis Oosthuizen, who were suspended by the PGA Tour after signing with the promoter.
One of those rookies was Colombian Sebastian Munoz, who went undefeated for the week at 2-0-1, taking out world No. 1 Scotty Scheffler. Another was 20-year-old Tom Kim, the fresh face of these matches, who gave the Internationals Saturday night a big show as his personality.
In four days, the Americans were very strong and very deep.
