United States extend lead over Internationals to threaten Presidents Cup blowout at Quail Hollow

The United States tightened their grip on the Presidents Cup, with Friday’s fourballs domination raising the prospect of a blowout at Quail Hollow.

The Internationals were severely weakened by the defections to LIV Golf, with the likes of Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer and Louis Oosthuizen unavailable to captain Trevor Immelman.

Those absences left a big hole to fill, while it’s arguable only Dustin Johnson was a major miss for Davis Love III’s USA.

After entering the day trailing by three points, the Internationals needed to make something happen early. As on the previous day, it did not happen and they will go into the weekend trailing 8-2.

The top match was a high-quality affair, as Adam Scott and Cam Davis pushed Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas hard. But they could never recover from falling three down after eight holes.

Birdies were traded on the back nine, and Spieth was forced to make a series of clutch putts for halves.

Day 2 Fourballs – United States 4 (8) – 1 (2) Internationals

• Jordan Spieth / Justin Thomas 2&1 Adam Scott / Cam Davis
• Scottie Scheffler / Sam Burns Halved Sungjae Im / Sebastian Munoz
• Kevin Kisner / Cameron Young Halved Mito Pereira / Christiaan Bezuidenhout
• Patrick Cantlay / Xander Schauffele 3&2 Hideki Matsuyama / Tom Kim
• Billy Horschel / Max Home 1 Up Corey Conners / Taylor Pendrith

His par putt on 13 felt like a big moment, and Thomas took centre stage one hole later when sending a tee shot on the 14th, the second of the Green Mile, to four feet.

Spieth pulled off the ultimate great escape on 15. The par putt was excellent, but he was fortunate to get the chance as his approach found the creek that runs down the left of the hole but somehow bounced off a rock and flew through the back of the green – from where he got up and down for a half.

Scott and Davis refused to wilt, and it was appropriate that Spieth closed them out with a brilliant downhill, left-to-right putt from 16 feet for the win.

“I made an adjustment after yesterday’s round,” Spieth said. “Yesterday my speed control was really bad. Once I had freedom on the speed control, I started to get dialled in on the lines.

“He (Thomas) made a good amount of birdies and they were on opposite holes to mine and that is what you have to do on fourballs.”

As on day one, there was a flood of red on the board early in the contest. Before the opening game had reached the turn, the United States led in all five matches.

Putting was a big factor on the opening day and it was a similar story during the fourballs on Friday.

The American players drained the vast majority of the ones they were expected to get, and also found tramliners from long distances for good measure.

Sam Burns was the standout on that front, as he found the bottom of the cup from 80 feet – with the elevation changing making it feel more like 100 feet – to stun their opponents.

Sungjae Im and Sebastian Munoz refused to wilt against Burns and Scottie Scheffler and it turned into a birdie-fest on the back nine.

Scheffler had a putt to win the match on 18, but left it on the edge of the cup and Im rolled in a short putt to secure a half.

The chemistry between the pair is impressive, and they cruised through their win over Tom Kim and Matsuyama.

From the moment they took the lead on the third, it was one-way traffic and they made the turn with a five-hole lead before closing out a 3&2 win.

The Mito Pereira and Christiaan Bezuidenhout against Kevin Kisner and Cameron Young match was the day’s arm-wrestle – with never more than a hole between the teams and they shared the point.

Max Homa has dreamed of playing team golf for a long time, and he came up big to secure a point in the bottom game. He rolled in an 11-foot putt for a win on 17 and followed from the same distance for a birdie on 18 to deny Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith a half.

Homa’s put stretched the United States’ lead to 8-2, to equal the record advantage they held in 2017 at Liberty National Golf Club – where they went on to secure a 19-11 victory.

It does not look good for the Internationals, but the team spirit seems strong and they were close to winning three of the five matches on Friday. To stem the tide, they wlll need a fast start at the weekend.